PR 






ill tiii' 



THE 

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL KNOWLEDGE 

OF WILLIAM SHAKSPERE 



AUTHOR'S EDITION 

This is the Author's Edition, limited to two 
hundred registered and numbered copies, of 
which this copy is 

Number 

"Believe me, I speak as my under- 
standing instructs me, and as my 
honesty puts it to utterance." 



L 



Pts. Bd. 



HP HE first folio edition of Shakspere's plays was edited and issued 
by two of Shakspere's theatrical colleagues, Heming and Condell, 
in 1623, in which was included an engraving of the author by a young 
artist, Martin Droeshout. Ben Jonson, who was Shakspere's intimate 
friend and companion, declared the engraving to be an accurate like- 
ness — in fact, praised it highly. It was at that time accepted as a good 
portrait. The original painting from which this engraving was made 
disappeared and remained in obscurity until 1892, when Mr. Edgar 
Flower, of Stratford-on-Avon, discovered in the possession of a Mr. 
H. C. Clements, at Peckham Rye, a portrait which so much resembles 
that of the engraving mentioned as having appeared in the folio edition, 
as to leave no doubt but that it was the original. The portrait was 
faded and worm eaten, but, without question, dated from the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century. It had been painted on a panel, 
made by joining two pieces of elm wood, and in the upper left-hand 
corner was the inscription, William Shakspere, 1609. 

Mr. Clements had purchased the portrait from an obscure dealer 
in 1840, but, knowing nothing of its history except what was noted on 
a slip of paper when he made the purchase, he pasted on the box in 
which the portrait was shipped the following: "The original portrait 
of Shakspere from which the Droeshout engraving was made and in- 
serted in the first collected edition of his works, published in 1623, 
being seven years after his death. The picture was painted seven 
years before the death of Shakspere and consequently fourteen years 
before the engraving was published." This portrait was publicly ex- 
hibited in London, where thousands inspected it. In all the details, the 
portrait is identical with the engraving. 

There seems good grounds for believing this portrait, therefore, 
one of Shakspere, painted during his lifetime, when about fifty-five 
years of age, and the only one painted during his lifetime known to 
exist. 

Upon the death of Mr. Clements in 1895, the portrait was pur- 
chased by Mrs. Charles Flower and presented to the Memorial Picture 
Gallery at Stratford, where it now hangs. 

The photogravure contained in this volume is from a photograph 
of the original: no attempt has been made to restore it, but it has been 
left as it now appears. The natural decay of the wood upon which 
it was painted is clearly shown. 



THE 

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL 
KNOWLEDGE 



OF 



IVILLIAM SHAKSPERR 



With Explanatory Notes 



JOHN W. WAINWRIGHT, 



New York 
PUBLISHED B Y THE A UTHOR 

1907 



[library of coN&kasl 

'1 Two Copiej Kecaivoe 

! JAN 8 1908 

' ., wuwngm tntrv 
;0USS4 XXc. No. 

, COPY B. 



Tt 



^ ffllfrnpfiir Jaa 



Copyright, jgo6 
BY JOHN W. WAINWR1GHT, M. D. 



To Her, my companion for fifteen years ; my 

inspiration, my critic ; whose irreparable loss 

is accentuated from year to year, this small 

volume is dedicated with a continued and 

growing affection, bv him whom she Loved 

the best of all. 

THE AUTHOR 



FOREWORD 

The knowledge of science, art and literature displayed in 
Shakspere's works has been the theme for many essays. Perhaps 
no other work has received so much attention from scholars, and 
if words were alone necessary to determine his rank among poets 
and dramatists certainly nothing further need be said. 

Of the biographies, reviews, essays and criticisms there is no 
end. We are content to leave these, however, to such illustrious 
writers as Johnson, Spencer, Coleridge, Dowden, Malone, Hazlitt, 
Collier, Mrs. Jamison and others, ourselves directing the readers' 
attention to the many evidences presented of his knowledge of 
medicine and its collateral branches. Much threshing discloses 
the perfect grain, and perchance we may be so fortunate as to 
help make clear to the occasional reader of Shakspere references 
obscure or not otherwise observed. 

The quotations given will occasionally differ from those con- 
tained in the expurgated or stage editions so commonly made use 
of, while others will appear which are not familiar perhaps to the 
reader. They have been taken from an edition in the writer's pos- 
session printed in 1796 by Bellamy and Roberts, London, now 
unfortunately out of print, and from a more modern one by 
Charles Knight, both of which give the plays as they appeared in 
the ''original copies of the first folio edition of 1623." 

Let it be understood that all the references relating to medi- 
cine are by no means given, but only such as are of greater interest. 
In some instances the meaning may seem obscure. Then matter 
is introduced which cannot be considered strictly medical, to 
render the quotations more clear, not only to the medical man, 
but to the layman into whose hands the book may come. 

If the writer shall succeed in helping to create a greater 
interest in the writings of Shakspere he will feel amply rewarded 
for his efforts, a labor of love. 



INTRODUCTION 

It would be out of place in such a work as this to give but a 
brief outline of what is known as Shakspere's life. I refer those 
in search of such information to the numerous works giving, most 
of them, a so-called "Life of Shakspere." 

Briefly, he attended a grammar school until fourteen years 
of age; from that age to eighteen we know nothing of his life. 
It is as reasonable, however, to believe that he was actively 
engaged in improving his mind, as it is that he was less honorably 
employed. His later achievements bear out this belief, for the mind 
that conceived the works bearing his name could never have been 
idle or otherwise employed than in the acquisition of knowledge. 
Rowe's history of Shakspere, containing assumptions since dis- 
proved, is largely responsible for the uncomplimentary sayings and 
beliefs which have found place in the minds of some. Personal 
views are there too persistently forced upon us. In the absence 
of well-authenticated facts we are not warranted in assuming- 
ill of one, albeit to one unprejudiced, enough is known to establish 
our Shakspere as entitled to a full measure of our esteem, love and 
gratitude. 

Shakspere, mentally, was the master of all time. The whole 
range of human knowledge and passion from science, anticipating 
research, to law and theology, is within his grasp. He portrays 
the villainies of the most atrocious, sounding depths amazing, 
equally as artistically as he carries us up and up, and then still 
farther up, that we may view the noblest characters ever painted 
by man. Each character is made perfect and sufficient, the pic- 
tures being so real, that they assume the place of friends in real life 
who, perhaps, have passed away in the flesh, but whose presence 
seemingly remains with us. We have Hamlet and Lear, Ophelia 
and Juliet, as well as Iago, Macbeth, Richard III. and King John, 
the alpha and omega of humanity. Each character, as I have said, 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



is sufficient, and therein we stand in awe with hat in hand before 
this man who could so lose himself as to leave no trace of self. 
If it is, as I believe true, that an individual cannot give character 
to another without having the essence of that same character in 
himself, then what prodigious learning, what infinite versatility! 
It is claimed that Shakspere had surely studied law ;that he must 
have been a close student of theology ; indeed, an academician, to 
possess such knowledge as he displays of mathematics, astronomy 
and literature. We may with equal certainty claim that he had 
been a student of medicine, and yet I can find no evidence that he 
ever was. It is reasonably certain that he was accustomed to asso- 
ciate with all classes of men and women ; that he was a keen ob- 
server, had an exceptionally retentive memory, sought knowledge 
from whatever source, could intuitively grasp a thought and put it 
to immediate use, mentally finish what was only begun by others. 
All people with whom he came in contact contributed to his knowl- 
edge, unconsciously, perhaps, more often than otherwise. He 
learned from all stations of life, from the Court to the gutter. 

Regarding the spelling of the Master's name as used in this 
volume, I have only to quote as follows from Knight's Life of 
Shakspere : 

"Malone in his 'Inquiry/ published in 1796, makes the 
following confession: 'In the year 1776 Mr. Steevens, in my 
presence, traced with the utmost accuracy the three signatures 
affixed by the poet to his will. While two of these manifestly 
appeared to us Shakspere, we conceived that in the third there 
was a variation, and that in the second syllable an a was found. 
Accordingly we have constantly so exhibited the poet's name ever 
since that time. It ought certainly to have struck us as a very 
extraordinary circumstance, that a man should write his name 
twice one way, and once another, on the same paper ; however, it 
did not; and I had no suspicion of our mistake till, about three 
vears ago, I received a very sensible letter from an anonymous 
correspondent, who showed me very clearly that, though there 
was a superfluous stroke where the poet came to write the letter 
r in his last signature — probably from the tremor of his hand — 
there was no a discoverable in that syllable; and that his name, 
like both the others, was written 'Shakspere.' " Revolving this 
matter in my mind, it occurred to me, that in the nezv facsimile of 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



his name which I gave in 1790, my engraver had made a mistake 
in placing an a over the name which was there exhibited, and that 
what was supposed to be that letter was only a mark of abbrevia- 
tion, with a turn curl at the first part of it, which gave it the 
appearance of a letter. 

If Mr. Steevens and I had maliciously intended to lay a trap 
for this fabricator to fall into, we could not have done the business 
more adroitly. The new facsimile continued to be given with an 
a over the name in subsequent editions. It was taken from the 
mortgage deed executed by Shakspere on the nth of March, 16x3. 
Malone continues : 

"Notwithstanding this, I shall continue to write our poet's 
name Shakspere. But whether I am doing right or wrong, it 
is manifest that he wrote it himself Shakspere." 

An autograph was found in a small folio volume, the first 
edition of Florio's translation of Montaigne, and purchased at 
auction in 1838 by the British Museum, in which the poet had 
written his name Shakspere. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
Medicine ------_--2 

Surgery --------- 22 

Mental and Nervous Diseases 33 

Obstetrics and Midwifery - - - - - 41 

Therapeutics, Pharmacy and Toxicology 47 

Anatomy ________ 60 

Physiology - - - - - - - -61 

Hygiene and Dietetics ______ 72 

Ethics _________ 76 

Medical Jurisprudence _____ 77 



The Medical and surgical 
knowledge of william shakspere 



Caliban. All the infections that the sun sucks up 

From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him 
By inch-meal a disease. 

— Tempest, Act. II., Sc. 2. 

"By inch-meal a disease" is rather a severe penalty to be invoked 
on Prosper for displeasing Caliban. This passage shows 
that the Master was familiar with the malarial cachexia, 
which so insidiously takes possession of those exposed. 

Stcphano. This is some monster of the isle, with four legs; who hath 
got, as I take it, an ague: Where the devil should he learn our language? 
I will give him some relief, if it be but for that : If I can recover him and 
keep him tame, and get to Naples with him, he's a present for any emperor 
that ever trod on neat's-leather. 

— Tempest, Act. II., Sc. <?. 

Shakspere gives many references to malaria or ague and to the 
various stages or phases of the disease. In the above quota- 
tion we have delirium accompanying the fever. 



Patroclus. O, then beware ; 

Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves : 

Omission to do what is necessary 

Seals a commission to a blank of danger; 

And danger, like an ague, subtly taints 

Even then when we sit idly in the sun. 

— Troilus and Cressida, Act III., Sc. 3. 

It is well known that those suffering from malaria can bring on 
a chill by sitting in the sun. 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Constance. But now will canker sorrow eat my bud, 

And chase the native beauty from his cheek. 

And he will look as hollow as a ghost, 

As dim and meagre as an ague's fit ; 

And so he'll die ; 

******** 

Grief fills the room up of my absent child. 



Pandulph. Before the curing of a strong disease. 

Even in the instant of repair and health, 
The fit is strongest. 

— King John, Act II. , Sc. 4- 

Mistress Overdone. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, 
What with the gallows, and what with poverty, 
I am Custom-shrunk. 

— Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Sweating sickness, the ague with which there is usually much 
sweating after the fever. 

Macbeth. Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; 

The cry is still "They come." Our castle's strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn : here let them lie, 
Till famine, and the ague, eat them up. 

—Macbeth. Act V ., Sc 5. 

The besiegers were evidently in a malarious country and unpro- 
tected from the source of infection. By prolonging the siege 
the besiegers would become fever stricken, lose strength and 
be unable to successfullv attack the castle. 



Rosalind. , for he seems to have the quotidian of love upon 

him. 

— As You Like It, Act III., Sc. 2. 



Mrs. Quickly. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir 
John : Ah, poor heart ! he is so shaked of a burning fever, quotidian tertian, 
that it is most lamentable to behold. 



Pistol. His heart is fracted and corroborate. 

—King Henry Fifth, Act II., Sc. I. 
3 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



The Hostess (formelv Mistress Quickly, now wife to Pistol) gets 
rather mixed in her description of Sir John's (Falstaffs) 
illness. She jumbles together quotidian and tertian in utter 
ignorance of their meaning. However, it would seem that 
Sir John was suffering from malarial fever, for just previous 
to this appeal for help the boy conjures Bardolph to "put his 
face between his sheets and do the office of a warming 
pan" (Sir John was having a chill), while now he is "shaked 
of a burning" (fever). 

"Fracted" means broken. The word is also used in this sense in 
"Timon of Athens." I am at a loss to find a meaning in this 
connection for "corroborate." 

Mrs. Quickly. 'A made a finer end and went away an it had been any 
christom child; 'a parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at turning 
o' the tide; for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with 
flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way ; 
for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. 

So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet ; I put my hand into the bed and 
felt them, and they were as cold as any stone ; then I felt to his knees, and 
so upward and upward, and all was as cold as any stone. 

— King Henry Fifth, Act II., Sc. 3. 

We are to understand "finer end" to mean fine end. Christom 
refers to the custom of placing upon children a white vesture 
to be worn for a month after baptism. There was, in olden 
times, the belief that no one died excepting at ebbtide. The 
fumbling with the sheets, playing with flowers, and babbling 
of green fields sounds much like the status typhosus, although 
the Hostess declared that Sir John (Falstaff) "is so shaked 
of a burning fever, quotidian tertian," etc. ; but her diagnosis 
should not count for much. 

Biron. A fever in your blood ! why, then incision 
Would let her out in saucers ; — 

— Love's Labor Lost, Act IV., Sc. .?. 

All medical men will know that bleeding for fevers was univer- 
sally practiced until within recent years, and was accepted 
and largely made use of in Shakspere's time. In addition to 
the depletion from bleeding, the poor patient with fever must 
also be starved. 

4 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Lennox. Clamor'd the live-long night : some say the earth was 
feverous and did shake. 

—Macbeth, Act II., Sc. 3. 



Antony. The white hand of a lady fever thee, 
Shake thou to look on't. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., Se. 3- 

Raise of bodily temperature from emotion or embarrassment. 

Troilus. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom : 
My heart beats quicker than a feverous pulse; 

— Troilus and Crcssida, Act III., Sc. 2. 

Acceleration of the pulse which accompanies fever. 



Timon. . Plagues incident to men, 

Your potent and infectious fevers heap 
On Athens, ripe for stroke ! thou cold sciatica 
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt 
As lamely as their manners ! lust and liberty 
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth; 
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, 
And drown themselves in riot ! Itches, blains, 
Sow all the Athenian bosoms ; and their crop 
Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath; 
That their society, as their friendship, may be merely poison ! 
— Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. J. 

Timon is hardly less an adept than Thersites in curses, while his 
supply of ills is most marvellous. Here is imagination run 
wild. Place beside this quotation the frightful material with 
which the witches compound their broth (Macbeth, Act IV., 
Sc. 1) and one is amazed. 



Scarus. On our side, like the token'd pestilence 
When death is sure. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., Sc. 8. 

I believe the Master here refers to what is known as the bubonic 
plague. 

5 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Caius Martins. All the contagion of the south light on you, 

You shames of Rome ! — you herd of — Boils and plagues 
Plaster you o'er; that you may be abhorr'd 
Further than seen, and one infect another 
Against the wind a mile ! You souls of geese 
That bear the shapes of men, — 

— Coriolanus, Act I.. Sc. 4- 

Contagious diseases are still thought to emanate from the south, 
i.e., near the equator. 



Volumnia. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome 
And occupation perish! 

— Coriolanus. Act IV., Sc. I. 



The red pestilence or typhus fever. 



Caliban. You taught me language; and my profit on't 

Is, I know how to curse : The red plague rid you, 
For learning me your language ! 

— Tempest, Act I., Sc 2. 

Typhus fever or the red-plague is known to have been common hi 
England as well as in France during Shakspere's time. In 
France it was called La pourpre, the red plague, from the 
eruption which accompanies the disease. 



Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perj ury. 

— Love's Labor Lost, Act V., Sc. 2. 

The stars in Shakspere's time and earlier were thought to influ- 
ence plagues and epidemics. 



King Henry. And draw their honours reeking up to heaven; 
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime, 
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France. 

—King Henry Fifth, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

This is a very severe arraignment of the honor of the French 
people — that it was no more than vapor to be "drawn reeking" 
into the atmosphere. The last two lines need no comment. 

6 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Adrian. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. 
Sebastian. As if it had iungs, and rotten ones. 



-Tempest, Act II., Sc. I. 



King. ; The rest have worn me out 

With several applications; — nature and sickness 
Debate it at their leisure. 

—All's Well That Ends Well, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Carefully noting the whole of this scene the reader will find that 
the King was suffering from emphysema. 



Coriolanus. How ! no more ? 

As for my country 1 have shed my blood, 
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs 
Coin words 'till their decay, against these measles, 
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought 
The very way to catch them. 

— Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. 1. 

I do not doubt that the measles here referred to was identical with 
the disease as it prevails to-day. The reader will note that 
infection was recosrnized. 



Gonzalo. There were mountaineers, dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose 
throats had hanging at them wallets of flesh. 

— Tempest, Act III., Sc. 3. 

This is unmistakable reference to goiter and its prevalence in 
those who dwell in mountainous regions. 



Page. And youthful still, in your doublet and hose, this raw rheu- 
matic day. 

— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Sc. 2. 



Rosalind. With a priest that lacks latin, and a rich man that hath 
not the gout : for the one sleeps easily, because he cannot study ; and the 
other lives merrily, because he feels no pain. 

— As You Like It, Act III., Sc. 2. 

7 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Post humus. Yet am I better 

Than one that's sick o' the gout : since he had rather 

Groan so in perpetuity, than be cur'd 

By the sure physician, death, who is the key 

To unbar these locks. 

— Cymbdinc, Act V., Sc. 4. 

Gout. Who is the sure physician that can cure this malady? 
Death is yet the only cure. 

Falstaff. A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he 
can part young limbs and leechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox 
pinches the other. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act I., Sc. 2. 



Falstaff. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: 
borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. * * * 
A pox of this gout ! or, a gout of this pox ! for the one, or the other plays 
the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter if I do halt ; I have the wars 
for my color, and my pension shall seem the more reasonable. A good 
wit will make use of anything; I will turn diseases to commodity. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act 1., Sc. 2. 



Malcolm. Comes the King forth, I pray you? 



Doctor. Ay, Sir: there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
The great assay of art ; but, at his touch, 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, 
They presently amend. 



Macduff. What's the disease he means? 



Malcolm. 'Tis call'd the evil: 

A most miraculous work in this good king: 
Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people, 
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 
The mere despair of surgery, he cures; 
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
Put on with holy prayers : and 'tis spoken, 

8 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



To the succeeding royalty he leaves 

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, 

He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy. 

—Macbeth, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

Scrofula was until the seventeenth century known as the King's 
evil, and was confidently believed to be cured by the King's 
touch. 



Capulct. Out, you green-sickness Carrion! out, you baggage! you 
tallow-face. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act III., Sc. 5. 



Enobarbus. ; and Lepidus, 

Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled 
With the green sickness. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act HI., Sc. 2. 

Here is a rare case, chlorosis in a man. 



Viola. : She never told her love, 

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, 
Feed on her damask cheek : she pin'd in thought ; 
And with a green and yellow melancholy, 
She sat like patience on a monument 
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? 

—Twelfth Night, Act II., Sc. 4. 

I hardly think that there will be found a general practicer of medi- 
cine who will not connect this melancholy of Viola's with 
digestive trouble, anemia, chlorosis and a train of functional 
disturbances as much as with disappointed love. 



Bardolph. 'Sblood. I would my face were in your belly ! 

Falstaff. God-a-mercy! so should I be sure to be heart-burned. 

— Part First, King Henry Fourth, Act III., Sc. 3. 

Indigestion accompanied by heart-burn. 

9 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Beatrice. How tartly that gentleman looks ! I never can see him but 
I am heart-burned an hour after. 

— Much Ado About Nothing, Act II., Sc. I. 

Hyperacidity of the gastric secretions inducing heart-burn. 



Agamemnon. What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? 

— Troilus and Cressida, Act I., Sc. 3. 

This reference clearly sets forth the connection between melan- 
choly minds and affections of the liver. 



Paulina. I say, she's dead : I'll swear 't, if word, nor oath 
Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring 
Tincture, or lustre, in her lip, her eye, 
Heat outwardly, or breath within, — 

—Winter's Tale, Act III., Sc. 2. 

It is quite evident that the queen was in a cataleptic state resulting 
from hysteria following much physical and mental suffering. 



First Servant. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, 
sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer 
of men. 

— Coriolanus, Act IV., Sc. 5. 

Apoplexy with the accompanying objective signs or symptoms. 



Falstaff. I heard say, your lordship was sick. I hope your lordship 
goes abroad by advice. And I hear, moreover, his highness is fallen into 
this same whoreson apoplexy. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of 
lethargy, — a sleeping of the blood, a whoreson tingling. It hath its original 
from much grief; from study, and perturbation of the brain; I have read 
the cause of its effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafness. * * * 

I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient : your lordship may 
minister the potion of imprisonment to me in respect to poverty; but how 
I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make 
some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself. * * * 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act I., Sc. 2. 



Hamlet. But, sure, that sense 
Is apoplexed. 

—Hamlet, Act III., Sc. 4- 
IO 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Prospero. Go, charge my goblins, that they grind their joints 
With dry convulsions ; shorten up their sinews 
With aged cramps ; and more pinch-spotted make them 
Than pard or cat o'mountain. 

—Tempest, Act IV., Sc. i. 

Pard-a leopard. 

Prospero. For this, he sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, 
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up ; urchins 
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, 
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinch'd 
As thick as honey-comb, each pinch more stinging 
Than bees that made them. 

— Tempest, Act I., Sc. <?. 

Cramps or spasms of the voluntary muscles. 

Prospero. If thou neglect'st or dost unwillingly 

What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps ; 
Fill all thy bones with aches ; make thee roar, 
That beasts shall tremble at thy din. 

— Tempest, Act I., Sc. £. 

Cramps and bone-aches. 

Lafeu. To be relinquished of all the learned authentic fellows! 

Parollcs. So I say ; both of Galen and Paracelsus ! 

King. Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side. 

*********** 

Where great additions swell, and virtue none, 
It is a dropsied honour. 

— All's Well That Ends Well, Act II., Sc. 3. 

Caliban. The dropsy drown this fool ! 

— Tempest, Act IV., Sc. 1. 

Is it not a fact that one suffering from a dropsy may be drowned 
in the fluid as well as that one may bleed to death in his 
own veins? 

11 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Cains Mar cins. What's the matter, you ciissentious rogues, 
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, 
Make yourselves scabs? 

— Coriolanus, Act I., Sc. i. 



Benvolio. Take thou some new infection to the eye, 
And the rank poison of the old will die. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act L, Sc. 2. 

Here is unquestionably an allusion to the antitoxic effect of one 
septic substance when brought into contact with another. 

The possibilities in this direction were known centuries before 
Shakspere's time, for we find that the search for some means 
to not only bring about immunity, but the application of one 
poison to counteract another, dates back to Galen. He 
relates that he used the flesh of the viper as an antivenom, 
while Mithridates sought to fortify himself against disease 
by taking the then known antidotes, as well as experimenting 
upon condemned criminals, finally rendering, we are told, 
both himself and them immune to snake bite by taking the 
blood of animals which had been fed upon venomous snakes : 
Andromachus, physician to Nero, as well as other notables, 
resorted to these same expedients. Finally Dioscorides ad- 
vised those bitten by mad dogs to drink the blood and eat 
of the liver of the animals which had bitten them. 



Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart ! 
Hysterica-passio! down, thou climbing sorrow, 
Thy element's below ! 

— King Lear, Act II., Sc. 4. 

Mother or Moother was in ages past the popular name for 
hysteria. 



Doctor. You see, her eyes are open. 



Gentlewoman. Ay, but their sense is shut. 

12 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Doctor. What a sign is there ! the heart is sorely charged. — 
This disease is beyond my practice: — 
More needs she the divine than the physician. 

—Macbeth, Act V., Sc. I. 

A case of somnambulism, resulting, in Lady Macbeth's case, from 
a sorely troubled mind following the murder of the king by 
her lord and with her help. There remained the smell of 
blood which "All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten." 



Paulina. I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you, — 
That creep like shadows by him, and do sigh 
At each his needless heavings, — such as you 
Nourish the cause of his awaking. 

—Winter's Tale, Act II., Sc. 3. 

Plainly exhibited sympathy and officious attention to the sick 
often disturb them more than necessary duties performed in 
a direct and unhesitating manner. 



King Henry. How many thousands of my poorest subjects 
Are at this hour asleep, sleep, gentle sleep, 
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, 
That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down 
And steep my senses in forgetfulness? 
Why, rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, 
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, 
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, 
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great, 
Under the canopies of costly state, 
And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody? 
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile 
In loathsome beds ; and leav'st the kingly couch ? 
********* 

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast 
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes and rock his brains 
In cradle of the rude imperious surge? 

********* 
Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose 
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude ; 
And in the calmest and most stillest night, 
With all appliances and means to boot, 

13 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Deny it to a king ! Then, happy low, lie down ! 
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act III., Sc. i. 



Here is a pronounced case of insomnia. 



Desdemona. For let our finger ache, and it indues 

Our other healthful members ev'n to a sense 
Of pain: 

—Othello, Act III., Sc. 4. 

This passage refers to sympathetic disturbances and to the influ- 
ence of mind on the body. 



King Henry. Then you perceive the body of our kingdom, 
How foul it is ; what rank diseases grow, 
And with what danger, near the heart of it. 

Warwick. It is but as a body yet distempered, 

Which to his former strength may be restored 
With good advice and little medicine. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act III., Sc. I. 

Here the Master shows that functional disturbances are often 
remedied "with good advice and little medicine." 

Archbishop : We are all diseas'd ; 

of And, with our surfeiting and wanton hours, 

York. Have brought ourselves into a burning fever, 

And we must bleed for it: of which disease, 
Our late King, Richard, being infected, died. 
But my most noble lord of Westmoreland 
I take not on me here as a physician ; 
Nor do I, as an enemy to peace, 
Troop in the throngs of military men : 
But rather show awhile like fearful war, 
To diet rank minds, sick of happiness; 
And purge the obstructions, which begin to stop 
Our very veins of life. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act IV., Sc. I. 

We have here an arraignment of the social pleasures which are 
so surely followed by a train of disturbances such as gout. 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



functional disorders, indigestion, neuralgias, anemias, etc. 
Happily, however, we are not now, as in the days of Shak- 
spere, compelled to "bleed for it," but we suffer nevertheless 
as surely as did those of whom the Archbishop told. 



Constance. For I am sick, and capable of fears. 

— King John, Act III., Sc. I. 



Prince Henry. If he be sick 

With joy, he will recover without physic. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act IV., Sc. 4. 



Horatio. think of it : 

(The very place puts toys of desperation, 
Without more motive, into every brain, 
That looks so many fathoms to the sea, 
And hears it roar beneath.) 

—Hamlet, Act I., Sc. 4. 

We are to understand the quotation to refer to the temptation to 
cast one's self from a height when contemplating the depths 
below. 



Edgar. Come on, sir ; here's the place ! — Stand still. — How fearful 
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low ! 

— Ki ng Lear, Act IV., Sc. 6. 

Here we have clearly set forth the influence of the emotions over 
the body as well as the will or mind. Who has not suffered 
fear when looking from a great height. 



Bassanio. Madam, you have bereft me of all words, 
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins : 

— Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. 2. 

This quotation shows the effect of emotional excitement on the 
circulation. 

15 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Gloster. Pardon me, gracious lord ; 

Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart, 
And dimmed mine eyes; that I can read no further. 

— Part Second, King Henry Sixth, Act I., Sc. i 

This passage sets forth in unmistakable force the effect of a 
sudden emotion on the vision. 



Isabella. Darest thou die? 

The sense of death is most in apprehension ; 
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon, 
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
As when a giant dies. 

— Measure for Measure, Act III., Sc. i. 



Falsiaff. It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage, is 
caught as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed 
of their company. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act V ., Sc. I. 



Helena. Sickness is catching; O, were favor so, 

Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go ; 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I., Sc. i. 

Infection is here acknowledged. 



Sands. 'Tis time to give them physic, their diseases 
Are grown so catching. / 

— King Henry Eighth, Act I., Sc. 3. 



Queen Margaret. I am no loathsome leper, look on me. 

— Part Second, King Henry Sixth, Act III., Sc. 2. 

Touchstone. If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation. 

— As You Like It, Act V., Sc. 4. 

The purgation referred to by Touchstone is evidently in a legal 
sense. To purge one's self by oath was, and is yet, practiced 
in courts of law. The church purges itself of unworthy 
members by expelling them. 

16 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Macbeth. What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug 
Would scour these English hence? 

— Macbeth, Act V., Sc. 3. 

King Richard. Let's purge this choler without letting blood ; 
This we prescribe, though no physician ; 
Deep malice makes too deep incision. 

— King Richard Second, Act I., Sc. I. 

Iago. Yet again your fingers to your lips? Would they were clyster- 
pipes for your sake. 

—Othello, Act II., Sc. 1. 

Clyster- pipes or enema containers. Enemas in Shakspere's time 
consisted mainly of solutions or mixtures of aloes, asafetida, 
epsom salt, opium, tobacco or turpentine. 

Claudio. The miserable have no other medicine, 
But only hope : 

— Measure for Measure, Act III., Sc. 1. 

Hope, what would we do or be without hope? Hope that buoys 
us up even to the last. There is no sorrow, no pain, even in 
the most depressed, those suffering with incurable disease, 
from the most horrible of accidents but are blessed with 
hope. It belongs to the pauper as well as the prince ; to the 
diseased as well as those in perfect health ; to those on beds 
of pain and suffering as well as to those joyously bent upon 
pleasure ; to the forlorn and friendless outcast as well as to 
him who receives the plaudits alike of friend and sycophant. 
Blessed is hope, for it is ours without price or the asking. 
More blessed to the miserable, for truly such have no other 
medicine, but only hope. 

Apemantus. So, so; there! — 

Aches contract and starve your supple joints ! — 

— Timon of Athens, Act I., Sc. I. 

Macbeth. The labour we delight in physics pain. 

—Macbeth, Act II., Sc. 3. 

The benefits of occupation are many, especially for imaginary ills. 

17 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Bull-calf. (A Recruit) O, sir! I am a diseased man. 

Falstaff. What disease hast thou? 

Bull-calf. A whoreson cold, sir; a cough, sir; which I caught with 
ringing in the king's affairs upon his coronation day, sir. 

Falstaff. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown ; we will have 
away thy cold. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act III., Sc. 2. 

Falstaff. Sirrah, you giant, what said the doctor to my water? 
Page. He said, sir. the water itself was a good healthy water; but for 
the party that owned it he might have more diseases than he knew for. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act I., Sc. 2. 

The value of urinary analysis was known centuries before 
Shakspere's time. There is frequent reference to examina- 
tions of the urine in Shakspere's plays ; in this instance, 
however, we infer that the Master wished to cast a slur upon 
professional opinions. 

Hamlet. Slanders, sir : for the satirical slave says here, that old men 
have gray beards ; that their faces are wrinkled ; their eyes purging thick 
amber, or plum tree-gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, 
together with weak hams : 

— Hamlet, Act II., Sc. 2. 
Here we have a case of senile decay. 

Mortimer. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age, 
Let dying Mortimer here rest himself. 
Even like a man new haled from the rack, 
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment : 
And these gray locks, these pursuivants of death, 
Nestor-like aged, in an age of care, 
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. 
These eyes, like oil whose wasting oil is spent, 
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent : 
Weak shoulders, over-borne with burd'ning grief: 
And pithless arms, like to a wither'd vine 
That droops his sapless branches to the ground. 
Yet are these feet, whose strengthless stay is numb, 
Unable to support this lump of clay, 
Swift-winged with desire to get a grave, 
As witting I no other comfort have. 

—Part First, King Henry Sixth, Act II., Sc. 5. 

Senile decay with approaching death. 

18 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Chief Justice. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that 
are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a 
moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? 
an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind short? your 
chin double? your wit single? and every part about you blasted with 
antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act I., Sc. 2. 



Gonsalo. Like poison given to work a great time after, 
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. 

—Tempest, Act III., Sc. 3. 

There was a belief that poison could be given without those taking 
it being aware of it, and that it would act only at some 
remote period. See references to secret poisonings by the 
author in New York Medical Record, August, 1903. 



Priv.cc Henry. It is too late; the life of all his blood 

Is touch'd corruptibly; and his pure brain 

(Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house) 

Doth, by the idle comments that it makes, 

Foretell the ending of mortality. — 



Pembroke. He is more patient 

Than when you left him; even now he sung. 



Prince Henry. O vanity of sickness ! fierce extremes, 

In their continuance, will not feel themselves. 
Death, having preyed upon the outward parts, 
Leaves them insensible; and his siege is now 
Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds 
With many legions of strange fantasies; 
Which, in their throng and press to this last hold. 
Confound themselves. 



King John, (Brought in) Poisoned, — ill fare; — dead, forsook, cast off; 
And none of you will bid the winter come, 
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw ; 
Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course 
Through my burn'd bosom ; nor entreat the north 

19 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips, 
And comfort me with cold. 

—King John, Act V., Sc. 7. 

Here is a perfect description of arsenical poisoning. 

Northumberland. In poison there is physic; and these news, 

Having been well, that would have made me sick. 
Being sick, have in some measure made me well : 
And as the wretch, whose fever weaken'd joints, 
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under fire, 
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire 
Out of his keeper's arms; even somy limbs, 
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief, 
Are thrice themselves : hence, therefore thou nice 
crutch ; 
— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act I., Sc. t 

Caesar. The manner of their deaths? 
I do not see them bleed. 
If they had swallowed poison 'twould appear 
By external swellings; but she looks like sleep. 



Dolabella. Here on her breast 

There is a vent of blood, and something blown : 
The like is on her arm. 



Guard. This is an aspic's trait. 



Cesar. Most probably 

That so she died; for her physician tells me 
She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite 
Of easy ways to die. — 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act V., Sc. 2. 



Coriolanus. To jump a body with a dangerous physic. 
That's sure of death without it, — 



Brutus. Sir, those cold ways, 

That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous 
When the disease is violent : — 

— Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. I. 
20 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



What a lecture is here given to the physician, too ready to dose 
his patient in the hope of giving relief, when a diagnosis can- 
not be made. 



Patience. Do you note, 

How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden? 
How long her face is drawn? How pale she looks, 
And of an earthly cold ? Mark you her eyes ! 



Griffith. She is going, wench; pray, pray. 

Patience. Heaven comfort her ! 

— King Henry Eighth, Act IV., Sc. 2. 

Here is a most excellent description of near approaching death. 

Capulet. , alas! she's cold; 

Her blood is settled; and her joints are stiff; 
Life and those lips have long been separated. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Sc. 5. 

Rigor mortis following death. 

Host. What says my Esculapius? my Galen? my heart of elder? ha! 
is he dead, bully Stale? is he dead? 

************** 

Thou art a Castilian, King Urinal ! 

Shallow. : he is a curer of souls and you a curer of bodies; if 

you should right, you go against the hair of your professions, * * * 

Host. ah, monsieur Mock-water. 



Caius. : by gar, I love you ; and I shall procure-a you de good 

guest, de earl, de knight, de lords, de gentlemen, my patients. 

— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II., Sc. 3. 

Heart of elder being soft pith, the reference to it is not compli- 
mentary to Caius. Then the Host calls him a Castilian, an 
opprobrious designation for the Spaniard, whom the English 

21 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



in Shakspere's time hated. Mock-water means counterfeit, 
valor, and refers to "Doctor Caius," a professional counter- 
feit. 

It will be seen that the ignorant quack is here well pictured in 
"Doctor Caius." The profession has always suffered from this 
incubus. The greater the ignorance, the more pompous, 
vain and boastful. It would seem that the success of these 
parasites was measured by the extent or degree of their, 
ignorance. In this country, however, we see the effect of 
state legislation for the purpose of regulating the practice of 
medicine. These laws are, in most of the states, wisely 
framed and have accomplished much good in protecting the 
people. In time, we shall hope to have this dangerous para- 
site pass from among us. 

The Host is more than a match for "Doctor Caius," for he evi- 
dently appreciates him at his true worth. 



Evans. Master Caius, that calls himself Doctor of Physic? 

— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Sc. I. 



Host. Peace, I say: soul-curer and body-curer, — shall I lose my doc- 
tor? no, he gives me the potions and the motions. Shall I lose my parson, 
my priest, my Sir Hugh? no, he gives me the proverbs and the no-verbs. 

— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Sc. 2. 



SURGERY 

Sir Toby. ; he's hurt me, and there's an end on't. — Sot, did'st 

see Dick Surgeon, sot? 



Cloivn. O he's drunk. Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were set at 
eight i' the morning. 



Sir Toby. ; I hate a drunken rogue. 

—Twelfth Night, Act V., Sc. I. 

Sir Toby very wisely objects to a drunken surgeon. 

22 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Hotspur. I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold, 
To be so pester'd with a popinjay, 
Out of my grief and my impatience 
Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what ; 
************** 

And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth 
Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise. 

— First Part, King Henry the Fourth, Act I., Sc. 3. 

Cold, as here applied to wounds, refers to the belief that "when 
the blood is cold we feel the wounds.'' Popinjay signifies 
parrot or parrot-like. "Out of my grief'' is to be interpreted 
out of my pain. Parmaceti is intended for spermaceti. The 
housewife in olden times regarded spermaceti as "excellent 
for inward bruises.'' 

The quotation shows that Hotspur was impatient and disgusted 
with this adviser "perfumed as a milliner" who objected to 
having the soldiers bear dead bodies from the battle field 
"betwixt the wind and his nobility." The passage should be 
read in full. 

Messenger. Send succors, lords, and stop the rage betime, 
Before the wound do grow incurable; 
For being green there is great hope of help. 
— Part Second, King Henry the Sixth, Act III., Sc. I. 

"Being green" or freshly made. Wounds left to become infected 
do not heal bv first intention. 



Queen Margaret. Away ! though parting be a fretful corsive, 
It is applied to a deathful wound. 
— Part Second, King Henry the Sixth, Act J J/., Sc. 2. 

Corsive, corrosive. 



Caius Marcius. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart 
To hear themselves remember'd. 



Cominius. Should they not, 

Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude, 
And tent their senses with death. 

— Coriolanus, Act I., Sc. p. 
23 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Mcncnius. Where is he wounded? 



Volumnia. V the shoulder, and i' the left arm. There will be large 
cicatrices to show the people, when he shall stand for his place. He 
received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i' the body. 

— Coriolanus, Act II., Sc. i. 



logo. What wound did ever heal but by degrees? 

—Othello, Act II., Sc. 3. 



Anna. O, gentlemen, see, see ! dead Henry's wounds 
Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh ! 
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity; 
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood 
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells; 
Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural, 
Provokes this deluge most unnatural. 

— King Richard Third, Act I., Sc. ?. 

There was a belief in earlier times that the wounds of a person 
murdered opened and bled in the presence cf the murderer. 
Thus they cried to heaven for revenge. 



Archbishop. Our peace will, like a broken limb united, 
Grow stronger for the breaking. 
— Part Second, King Henry the Fourth, Act IV., Sc. 1. 



Buckingham. But lately, splinter d, knit, and join'd together, 
Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd and kept; 

* * * , lest 

The new heal'd wound of malice should break out; 
Which would be so much the more dangerous, 
By how much the estate is green, and yet ungoverned. 
— King Richard the Third, Act II., Sc. 2. 



I ago. This broken joint between you and her husband, entreat her to 
splinter; — this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before. 

—Othello, Act II., Sc. 3. 



Sicinius. He's a disease that must be cut away. 

24 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Menenius. O, he's a limb, that has but a disease; 
Mortal to cut it off; to cure it, easy. 

********* 

The service of the foot 

Being once gangren'd, is not then respected 

For what before it was. 

— Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. I. 



York. This fester'd joint cut off, the rest rests sound; 
This, let alone, will all the rest confound. 

— King Richard the Second, Act V ., Sc. j. 

This quotation refers to Aumerle, York's son and cousin to Bo- 
lingbroke, afterwards King Henry the IV., who has entered 
into the conspiracy to overthrow Bolingbroke. York wishes 
his son summarily dealt with rather than allow him to return 
to his fellow-conspirators to thus "All the rest confound." 

Hamlet. Mother, for love of grace, 

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks ; 
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, 
Infects unseen. 

— Hamlet, Act HI., Sc. 4. 

The Master here shows the necessity of repair in wounds or 
abscesses from the bottom and the need of drainage for the 
accumulated pus. "Mining all within, infects unseen" applies 
to-day as in his time. It is fair to presume that with the 
drainage tubes and antiseptic gauze of to-day much more 
comfort would have been secured the patient and many lives 
prolonged. And yet, is it not strange that these great prin- 
ciples in surgery should have been so clearly defined at such 
a time and that, too, by a layman? It cannot be said that 
the practice of medicine was based upon such rational and 
scientific inferences in Shakspere's time as was surgery, for 
here is a principle in surgery clearly stated at a time when 
therapeutics consisted in the administration of all sorts of 
empirical or irrational compounds, calculated, it would seem 
at this day, to do infinite injury to the poor sufferer, rather 
than to aid his recovery. What with purging, blood-letting, 

25 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



etc., it must be that the mortality was great in the time of 
Shakspere. 



King. But like the owner of a foul disease, 
To keep it from divulging, let it feed 
Even on the pith of life. 

— Hamlet, Act IV., Sc. i. 



King Richard. More than it is, ere foul sin, gathering head, 
Shall break into corruption: 

— King Richard the Second, Act V ., Sc. I. 



Hamlet. This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace; 
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without, 
Why the man dies. 

—Hamlet, Act IV., Sc. 4. 



King. Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red. 

******** 

For, like the hectic in my blood he rages, 
And thou must cure me. 

—Hamlet, Act IV., Sc. 3. 



Bottom. I shall desire of you more acquaintance, good Master Cob- 
web : If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. — 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III., Sc. 1. 

Cobweb or spider web has always been a popular domestic remedy 
with which to control hemorrhages. 



Second Servant. Go thou ; I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs 

To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him ! 
— King Lear, Act III., Sc. 7. 

A method of stopping hemorrhage. 



Salisbury. I am not glad that such a sore of time 
Should seek a plaster by contemn'd revolt, 

26 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



And heal the inveterate canker of one wound, 
By making many. 

— King John, Act V., Sc. 2. 

This refers to a seaton or issue ; or possibly to a blistering plaster 
applied for the purpose of producing counterirritation. 



Ccesar. ; But we do lance 

Diseases in our bodies. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act V ., Sc. i. 



Lear. The untented woundings of a father's curse 
Pierce every sense about thee ! 

— King Lear, Act I., Sc. 4. 

'Untented woundings" or those that cannot be probed; incurable. 



Hector. ; but modest doubt is call'd 

The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches 
To the bottom of the worst. 

— Troilus and Cressida, Act II., Sc. 2. 



Patroclus. Who keeps the tent now? 

The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound. 

— Troilus and Cressida, Act V., Sc. 1. 

Tent here refers to small pledgets of some soft material, usually 
lint, often medicated, which were inserted into wounds as the 
modern surgeon uses gauze. 



Mencnius. For 'tis a sore upon us 

You cannot tent yourself; 

— Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. l. 



Imogene. Talk thy tongue weary; speak: 

I have heard I am a strumpet ; and mine ear. 
Therein false struck, can take no greater wound, 
Nor tent to bottom that. 

— Cymbeline, Act III., Sc. 4. 

Tent or probe to the bottom. 

27 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Bertram. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? 
Lafcu. A fistula, my lord. 

—All's Well Thai Ends Well, Act I.. Sc. i. 

This fistula was not the familiar fistula in ano, but a fistula in the 
chest resulting from empyema. The cure was effected in two 
clays. (?) 

Thcrsitcs. Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts griping, 
ruptures, catarrhs, loads of gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw 
eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, 
sciaticas, limekilns i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee- 
simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous discoveries. 

— Troilus and Cressida, Act V ., Sc. I. 

Thersites certainly was master of invective. With such an array 
of complaints it were useless to contend. It is especially 
interesting to note here reference to cystitis and renal cal- 
culus. 

Antigonus. I have three daughters; the eldest is eleven, 

The second, and the third, nine ; and some five ; 

If this prove true, they'll pay for't: by mine honour, 

I'll geld them all : fourteen they shall not see, 

To bring false generations : they are co-heirs ; 

And I had rather glib myself than they 

Should not produce fair issue. 

— Winter's Talc, Act II.. Sc. I. 

The Master here places the age at which menstruation or puberty 
appears at fourteen years. 

To geld his daughters Antigonus would have to remove their 
ovaries. Can it be that this operation had been performed on 
women, or even seriously considered possible at or before 
Shakspere's time? The very thought of it is startling; and 
yet. what else are we to infer? 

Lcontcs. ? and all eyes 

Blind with the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only, 
That would unseen be wicked? 

— Winter's Tale, Act /., Sc. 2. 

Cataract or opacities of the cornea, and is referred to elsewhere 
in Shakspere in the same connection as pin and web. 

28 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



First Cent. How now? which of your hips has the most profound 
sciatica? 

— Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. 2. 

The sciatica here referred to is that which accompanies tertiary 
syphilis. 



Lucio. Behold, hehold, where Madam Mitigation comes ! I have pur- 
chased as many diseases under her roof as come to 

Second Gent. To what, I pray ? 

Lucio. Judge. 

Second Gent. To three thousand dolours a-year. 

First Gent. Ay, and more. 

Lucio. A French crown more. 

— Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. 2. 

This humorous dialogue has reference to syphilis. A French 
crown is nothing less than a bald pate following an attack 
of syphilis. The repeated reference to this disease as being of 
or from France indicates a belief in its origin in that country. 



First Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me ; but thou art 
full of error; I am sound. 

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound, as things 
that are hollow ; thy bones are hollow ; impiety has made a feast of thee. 

— Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Syphilitic affection of the bones. 



Lucio. ; — but whilst I live, forget to drink after thee. 

— Measure for Measure, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Contamination through using the same drinking vessel as one who 
is suffering from syphilis. 



Bottom. I will discharge it in either your straw-colored beard, your 
orange-tawney beard, your purple-ingrain beard, or your French-crown- 
colored beard, your perfect yellow. 

Quince. Some of your French-crowns have no hair at all, and then 
you will play bare-faced. — 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I., Sc. 2. 

29 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Pistol. No; to the spital go, 

And from the powdering-tub of infamy 
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, 
Doll Tear-sheet she by name, and her espouse. 

— King Henry Fifth, Act II., Sc. i. 

King Henry. Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to 
one, they will beat us ; for they bear them on their shoulders : but it is no 
English treason to cut French crowns, and tomorrow the king himself will 
be a clipper. 

—King Henry Fifth, Act IV., Sc. i. 

Pistol. News have I 

That my Nell is dead i' the spital of malady of France. 

— King Henry Fifth, Act V., Sc. I. 

"Malady of France" as elsewhere stated we know to have been 
syphilis. "Spital" or hospital was where these cases were 
often sent for treatment. 

First Clown. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, (as we have 
many pocky cases now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in,) he will 
last you some eight year, or nine year; a tanner will last you nine year. 

—Hamlet, Act V., Sc. i. 

Here is another allusion to syphilis. The frequency of these ref- 
erences would indicate a widespread prevalence of the disease 
in Shakspere's time, more especially in France. 

The reader will remember the acrimonious disputes between the 
physician and surgeon as to which should treat this disease. 
Its prevalence among the people more particularly in France 
where the dispute was waged with great energy, made its 
treatment a very lucrative part of medical practice and 
neither was willing to surrender to the other without a 
struggle. The French disease, (Morbus Gallicus) as it was 
known, soon became prevalent throughout Europe. Some, 
however, distinguished it as the Neapolitan disease from the 
fact that it was so common in Naples. 

Timon. This yellow slave 

Will knit and break religions; bless the accursed; 
Make the hoar leprosy adored ; place thieves, 

30 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



And give them title, knee, and approbation, 
With senators on the bench : this is it, 
That makes the wappen'd widow wed again; 
She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores 
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 
To the April day again. 

— Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

The master here refers to the value of gold and the diseased syph- 
ilitic ready to wed again for the power its possession brings. 
Wappen'd means one so diseased. 



Falstaff. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the 
diseases, Doll : we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you. 
Doll. Ay, marry; our chains and our jewels. 
Falstaff. Your brooches, pearls and owches. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act II., Sc. 4. 

Brooches, pearls and owches, certainly do not here refer to jewels 
or ornaments. 

Timon. (To his mistresses, Phrynia and Timandra;. 

; Yet may your pains, six months, 

Be quite contrary ; 



Consumptions sow 
In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, 
And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice, 
That he may never more false titles plead, 
Nor sound his quillet shrilly; hoar the flamen 

: down with the nose, 

Down with it flat ; take the bridge quite away. 

: make curl'd pate ruffians bald; 

And let the unscarred braggarts of the war 
Derive some pain from you : Plague all ; 
That your activity may defeat, and quell 
The source of all erection. 

— Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

Timon refers to the pains that sexual disease produces in the other 
sex, contracted of the harlot, and of her own loss in that she 
is meanwhile prevented from practicing her vocation or in 
doing so of the discomfort it causes her. 

The Master calls attention to the whole train of sequels following 

3i 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



syphilis when, as in those days, improperly treated. Laryn- 
geal complication, destruction of the tissues of the nose, loss 
of hair and often the production of impotency. 

Thersites. After this, vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, the 
bone-ache ! for that methinks is the curse dependent on those that war for 
a placket. 

— Troilus and Crcssida, Act II., Sc. 3. 

This passage refers to syphilis. Placket to the opening in the 
upper part of petticoats worn by women. The connection will 
be readily understood. 

Pandarus. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick so troubles 
me, and the foolish fortune of this girl ; and what one thing, what another, 
that I shall leave you one o' these days : And 1 have a rheum in mine eyes 
too; and such an ache in my bones, that, unless a man were cursed, I 
cannot tell what to think on't. — 

— Troilus and Crcssida, Act V., Sc. 4. 

I am more inclined to regard this a case of tertiary syphilis than 
one of pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption. The condi- 
tion of the eyes and the ache in the bones point to the former 
disease rather than to the latter. 

Clown, Why, masters, have your instruments been at Naples, that 
they speak i' the nose thus? 

—Othello, Act III., Sc. 1. 

It is said that in Naples the effect of syphilis were more audible 
and visible than elsewhere. 

Boult. But, mistress do you know the French knight? 

Bawd. Well, well; as for him, he brought his disease hither. 

— Pericles, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

Lysimachus. How now, unwholesome iniquity? 

Have you that a man may deal withal, and defy the 
surgeon ? 

—Pericles, Act IV., Sc. 6. 

This question is put to the keeper of a brothel and refers to the 
probability of contracting venereal diseases while an inmate. 

32 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Dromio of Syracuse. Master, is this Mistress Satan ? 

Antipholus of Syracuse. It is the devil. 

Dromio of Syracuse. Nay, she is worse, she is the devil's dam ; and 
here she comes in the habit of a light wench; and thereof comes, that the 
wenches say, "God damn me" ; that's as much as to say ; "God make me a 
light wench." It is written, they appear to men like angels of light: light 
is an effect of fire, and fire will burn ; ergo, light wenches will burn. Come 
not near her. 

— Comedy of Errors, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

The "burning devil" was none else than the pain of acute gon- 
orrhea. 



Prince Henry. For the women. — 

Falstaff. For one of them, — she is in hell already, and burns, poor 
soul ! For the other, — I owe her money : and whether she be damned for 
that, I know not. 

Host. No, I warrant you. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act II., Sc. 4. 

"Doll" according to that reprobate Falstaff is already in hell, 
because she burns : has gonorrhea in the acute form. "For 
the other" he himself owes her money and not being above 
suspicion does not know whether he has infected her or not. 
The Host who is pretty well acquainted with Sir John, has 
no doubt regarding it, hence his "No, I warrant you;" accent 
on warrant. 



MENTAL AND NERVOUS DISEASES. 

In deciding upon the selections for this chapter I have taken only 
such as will appeal with greater interest to the general prac- 
tices of medicine. Very instructive and highly edifying 
essays could be written upon the characters of Ophelia, Lear, 
Constance, Timon, Caliban, Lady Macbeth and others, but 
such essays would be out of place in a chapter which is in- 
tended only to quote illustrations referring to mental dis- 
eases. That various phases of insanity were known to Shak- 
spere and that he had more than a cursory knowledge of the 

33 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



workings of the mind in disease will be seen from a reading 
of the following quotations : 



Olivia. Why, this is very midsummer madness. 

—Twelfth Night, Act III., Sc. 4. 

The belief that the loss of one's wits was in a great measure due 
to the influence of the moon prevailed in Shakspere's time, 
and the coming of the midsummer moon was regarded as a 
critical time in the lives of those not mentally strong. We 
find this mentioned in Ray's Proverbs as well as in Palsgrove 
in 1590 and in Poor Richard's Almanack. 



Malvolio. I am no more mad than you are, make the trial of it in 
any constant question. 



Clown. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman 'till I see his brains. I will 
fetch you light, and paper and ink. 

—Twelfth Night, Act IV., Sc. 2. 

The Clown will not accept the protestations of Malvolio that he 
is not mad ; he proposes to put him to the test in having him 
write, " 'till I see his brains" in his writing or sentences. 



Sebastian. : but that I am not mad, 

Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so, 

She could not sway her house, command her followers 

Take and give back affairs, and their despatch, 

With such a smooth, discreet and stable bearing, 

As, I perceive, she does: there's something in't, 

That is deceivable. 

—Twelfth Night, Act IV., Sc. 3. 



Duke. If she be mad as I believe no other, 

Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, 
(Such dependency of thing on thing), 
As e'er I heard in madness. 

— Measure for Measure, Act V ., Sc. 1. 

34 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Page. For your physicians have expressly charg'd 
In peril to incur your former malady, 
That I should yet absent me from your bed : 



Sly. . But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again; I 

will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood. 

— Taming of the Shrew. Introduction, Sc. 2. 



Abbess. And therefore came it that the man was mad : 
The venom clamours of a jealous woman 
Poison more deadly than a mad dog's tooth. 
It seems, his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing; 
And thereof comes it, that his head is light. 
Thou say'st, his meat was saue'd by thy upraidings : 
Unquiet meals make ill digestions, 
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred ; 
And what's a fever but a fit of madness? 
Thou say'st his sports were hinder'd by thy brawls : 
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue, 
But moody and dull melancholy, 
Kinsman to grief and comfortless despair. 
And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop 
Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life? 
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest 
To be disturb'd, would mad or man, or beast : 
The consequence is then, thy jealous fits 
Have scar'd thy husband from the use of wits. 

— Comedy of Errors, Act V ., Sc. i. 

How many men and women are confined in State Hospitals for 
the insane as the result of domestic brawls, upbraidings, 
criminations and recriminations. The Master here points a 
painful truth which it is the misfortune of most physicians to 
see more or less frequently. 

Note the reference to hydrophobia, melancholia, insomnia, dyspep- 
sia and the want of recreation. 



Macbeth. How does your patient, doctor? 
Doctor. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick coming fancies 

That keep her from her rest. 

35 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Macbeth. Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; 
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain ; 
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, 
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff, 
Which weighs upon the heart? 



Doctor. Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself. 



Macbeth. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. — 

—Macbeth, Act V ., Sc. J. 

We cannot but feel for Macbeth. He has with the moral support 
and encouragement of his wife committed a foul crime. She 
now threatens by her unconscious talking to disclose it, in 
fact later does so. He therefore appeals to the physician to 
"cure her of that" and evidently does not believe that it is 
impossible. The physician's answer maddens and disappoints 
him ; hence his reply. 

Constance. If I were mad, I should forget my son; 
Or madly think a babe of clouts were he : 
I am not mad; too well I feel 
The different plague of each calamity. 

— King John, Act III., Sc. 4. 

Lear. Does any. here know me? This is not Lear: 

Does Lear walk thus? speak thus? where are his eyes? 
Either his notion weakens, or his discernings 
Are lethargized. Ha! waking? 'tis not so. 
Who is that can tell me who I am? 

— King Lear, Act I., Sc. 4. 

Lear. O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven ! 
Keep me in temper ; I would not be mad ! 

— King Lear, Act I., Sc. 5. 

Lear. : may be, he is not well : 

Infirmity doth still neglect all office, 

36 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves, 
When nature, being oppressed, commands the mind 
To suffer with the body: 

— King Lear, Act II., Sc. 4. 

Lear. But where the greater malady is fix'd, 
The lesser is scarce felt, — 

When the mind's free 

The body's delicate : The tempest in my mind 
Doth from my sense take all feeling else, 
Save what beats there. 

— King Lear, Act III., Sc. 4. 

Kent. Oppress'd nature sleeps : — 

This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses 
Stand in hard cure, 

— King Lear, Act III., Sc. 6. 

Old Man. Madman and beggar too. 

Gloster. He has some reason, else he could not beg. 

— King Lear, Act IV., Sc. 1. 

Lear. Pray, do not mock me : 

I am a very foolish fond old man, 

Fourscore and upwards ; — and, to deal plainly, 

I fear, I am not in my perfect mind. 

Methinks, I should know you, and know this man ; 

Yet I am doubtful : for I am mainly ignorant 

What place this is; and all the skill I have 

Remembers not these garments; nor I know not 

Where I did lodge last night : Do not laugh at me 

For, as I am a man, I think this lady 

To be my child Cordelia. 

Cordelia. And so I am, I am. 

Physician. Be comforted, good madam : the great rage, 

You see, is kill'd in him : and yet it is danger 

To make him even o'er the time he has lost. 

Desire him to go in; trouble him no more 

Till further settling. 

— King Lear, Act IV., Sc. 7. 

Poor old king. This is to me the most pathetic scene in all of 
Lear. I well remember witnessing the great tragedian John 

37 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



McCullough portray this character. It was superb. When 
he rendered the above words he was himself moved to tears. 
The audience was so profoundly in sympathy that there was 
literally not a dry eye in the house; the suffering was ex- 
cruciating. I have never before or since seen an audience so 
profoundly moved that it could make no response. Sobs were 
audible in every part of the house. Cordelia could not speak 
her lines for sobbing while the physician had to make a great 
effort to speak his part. Every player not on the stage was 
in the wings and all as profoundly moved as were the audi- 
ence. It was a great tribute to a masterful genius. 



Polonius. . Your noble son is mad : 

Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, 
What is't but to be nothing else but mad? 

— Hamlet, Act II., Sc. 2. 

Can anyone even today give a better definition of madness? 



Polonius. And he, repulsed, (a short tale to make), 
Fell into sadness; then into a fast; 
Thence to a watch; thence into weakness; 
Thence to a lightness ; and by this declension, 
Into a madness, wherein now he raves. 

— Hamlet, Act II., Sc. 2. 



Gloster. A subtle knave ! but yet it shall not serve. — 

Let me see thine eyes; wink now; now open them: 
In my opinion, yet thou see'st not well. 

— Part Second, King Henry Sixth, Act II., Sc. 1. 

This is a case of imposture and Gloster has set himself to expose 
it. He was evidently seeking for the sign of contraction and 
dilatations of the pupils. 



King Richard. This music mads me, let it sound no more : 

For though it hath holp madmen to their wits, 
In me it seems it will make wise men mad. 

— King Richard Second, Act V ., Sc^ $. 

We have a recent revival of the application of the soothing effect 

38 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



of music in the treatment of disordered minds. The music 
referred to by the King was evidently discordant. 



Stcphano. He's in his fit now ; and does not talk after the wisest. 
He shall taste of my bottle : if he have never drunk wine before, it will go 
near to remove his fit. 

— Tempest, Act II., Sc. 2. 

Sir Toby. We must deal gently with him; — this is not the way; do 
not you see you move him? — let me alone with him. 
Fabian. Carry his water to the wise woman. 
Maria. It shall be done tomorrow morning if I live. 

—Twelfth Night, Act III., Sc. 4. 



Warwick. Be patient princess ; you do not know these fits 
Are with his highness very ordinary; 
Stand from him, give him air ; he'll straight be well. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act IV., Sc. 4. 



Cassius. He had a fever when he was in Spain, 

And, when the fit was on him, I did mark 

How he did shake : 'tis true, this god did shake : 

His coward lips did from their color fly; 

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world, 

Did lose his lustre : I did hear him groan : 

Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans 

Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, 

Alas! it cried, Give me some drink, Titinius; 

As a sick girl. 

— Julius Caesar, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Note the severe rigor, pale lips, dull eye, the thirst, etc., of 
epilepsy. 



Cassius. What ! did Csesar swoon ? 

Casca. He fell down in the market place, and foamed at the mouth, 
and was speechless. 

Brutus. Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness. 

— Julius Cccsar, Act I., Sc. 2. 

It is almost incredible that a man of Caesar's genius, force and in- 
tellectual power should have been subject to epilepsy, yet 

39 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



history so informs us. "In everything he excelled." The first 
general, the greatest statesman, and, with one exception 
(Cicero), the greatest orator of his age. He was unsurpassed 
as a historian, as well as a great mathematician, jurist and 
architect, and yet withal an epileptic. 

Casca. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said 
anything amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. 

— Julius Ccesar, Act I., Sc. 2. 

We have here the confused state of mind following an attack of 
epilepsy. 

Kent. A plague upon your epileptic visage ! 

Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool? 

— King Lear, Act II., Sc. 2. 

This quotation indicates to my mind a personal knowledge of 
epilepsy. Shakspere had doubtless witnessed more than one 
attack to have thus written of it. 



logo. My lord has fallen into an epilepsy. 

This is his second fit; he had one yesterday. 

Cassio. Rub him about the temples. 

lago. No, forbear : 

The lethargy must have a quiet course : 
If not, he foams at mouth; — and by and by- 
Breaks out to savage madness. 

—Othello, Act V. } Sc. 2. 

Duke of York. O, then, how quickly should this arm of mine, 
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee 
And minister correction to thy fault ! 

— King Richard Second, Act II., Sc. 3. 

Here is surely a case of hemiplegia. 

Lord Say. The palsy, and not fear, provokes me. 

— Part Second, King Henry Sixth, Act IV., Sc. 7. 

Beatrice. O Lord ! he will hang upon him like a disease : he is sooner 
caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. 

— Much Ado About Nothing, Act. I., Sc. 1. 

40 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



OBSTETRICS AND MIDWIFERY. 



Sir Toby. Like Aqua-vita with a midwife. 

—Twelfth Night, Act II. , Sc. 5 



Nurse. And she was wean'd — I never shall forget it, — 
Of all the days of the year, upon that day; 
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, 
********** 
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple 
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool! 
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug. 

For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, 
She could have run and waddled all about. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. $. 



Cleopatra. Peace, peace ! 

Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, 
That sucks the nurse asleep? 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act V., Sc. 2. 

This reference to the asp as "my baby" requires considerable 
imagination. The reptile did not suck Cleopatra to sleep, 
but rather caused her death by its poison or virus. 



Lear. Thou know'st the first time we smell the air, 
We wawl and cry: — 

— King Lear, Act IV., Sc. 6. 



Pericles. Lucina, O 

Divinest patroness, and midwife, gentle 
To those that cry by night, convey thy deity 
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs 
Of my Queen's travails ! — 
*********** 

A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear; 
No light, no fire: the unfriendly elements 
Forgot thee utterly ; nor have I time 
To give thee hallow'd to thy grave, but straight 

41 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Must cast thee, scarce coffin'd, in the ooze; 
Where, for a monument upon thy bones, 
And aye-remaining lamps, the belching whale 
And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse, 
Lying with simple shells. 

— Pericles, Act III., Sc. i. 

The reader will remember that Pericles was accompanied by his 
queen in a voyage during which a most severe storm overtook 
them. Through fear and the effect of the "Dancing boat" 
the queen, who was with-child, was prematurely delivered 
of a girl baby. She apparently expired, was enclosed by 
Pericles in a water-tight chest and consigned to the deep. 
The chest was quickly washed ashore, discovered at once, 
and the queen released and resuscitated. 

Here we have, as far as the author is aware, the only gross viola- 
tion of natural laws made in the Master's plays. The 
necessity for such a sequel existed, however, and in the happy 
termination of the queen's distress and perilous position, we 
are glad to allow unquestioned this poetic license. 



Costard. Faith, unless you play the honest Trojan, the poor wench is 
cast away: she's quick; the child brags in her belly already; 'tis yours. 

— Love's Labor Lost, Act V., Sc. 2. 

Quickening or movement of the fetus in utero. 



Clown. Sir, she came in great with child; 

— Measure for Measure, Act II., Sc. 1. 



Timon. Twin'd brothers of one womb, — 

Whose procreation, residence, and birth, 

Scarce is divident, — touch them with several fortunes, 

The greater scorns the lesser. 

— Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

Twins are also referred to in Othello, Act II., Sc. 3, in the 
Second Part of King Henry Sixth, Act IV., Sc. 2, and in 
the Comedy of Errors, Act I., Sc. 1. 

Doll. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on ; I'll tell thee what, thou 

42 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



damned tripe-visaged rascal ; an the child I now go with do miscarry, thou 
hadst better thou had'st struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain. 

Hostess. O that Sir John were come ! he would make this a bloody 
day to somebody. But I would the fruit of her womb might miscarry! 
— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act V ., Sc. 4. 

This passage refers to physical violence in bringing- about a 
miscarriage. 

Nut-hook a name of reproach for the beadle or baileff, an officer 
of the Law, because they usually were armed with a catch- 
pole or a pole with a hook at the end. 

Doll is never at a loss for abusive epithets : her vocabulary is 
amply sufficient for any and all occasions. 

Queen Margaret. From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept 
A hell-hound that doth hurt us all to death : 
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes 
To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood; 
That foul defacer of God's handy-work. 

— King Richard Third, Act IV., Sc. 4. 

The Master here calls attention among other things to the erup- 
tion of the teeth before birth, and in this instance it is not 
merely a poetic fancy, but is amply substantiated by history. 



Richard. I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, 
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, 
Deformed, unhnish'd, sent before my time 
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, 
And that so lamely and unfashionable 
That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them ; — 

— King Richard Third, Act I., Sc. I. 

Shakspere portrays Richard as horribly deformed at birth. It 
were unfortunate thus to picture this prince, for we have it 
from reliable sources that while he was not perfectly 
fashioned, yet he was most courteous, pleasing in manner, 
albeit somewhat ambitious to secure the crown of England 
and resorted to unwarranted means to this end. 



Glostcr. Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb ; 
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws, 

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SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe 
To shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub ; 
To make an envious mountain en my back, 
Where sits deformity to mock my body; 
To shape my legs of an unequal size; 
To disproportion me in every part, 
Like to a chaos, or an unlicked bear-whelp 
That carries no impression like the dam. 

— Part Third, King Henry Sixth, Act III., Sc. 2. 

The Duke of Gloster here referred to is he who afterward became 
King Richard the Third. (See comment on page 43.) 

With such a multitude of incongruous shortcomings one can 
scarcely wonder that Gloster should endeavor to make amends 
by seeking to be exalted as the sole majesty of England. 



King Henry. Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, 

And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope: 

To wit, an indigested and deformed lump, 

Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. 

Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born, 

To signify thou cam'st to bite the world: 

— Part Third, King Henry Sixth, Act V., Sc. 



Fa' staff. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, 
with a white head, and something of a round belly. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act I., Sc. 2. 



Robert. ; and took it, on his death. 

That this, my mother's son, was none of his ; 
And, if he were, he came into the world 
Full fourteen weeks before the course of time. 

— King John, Act L, Sc. 2. 

This is a case of illegitimacy rather than premature birth, as 
"fourteen weeks before the course of time" would bring the 
event before the viable period of pregnancy. 



Hotspur. Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth 

In strange eruptions; oft this teeming earth 
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd 
By the imprisoning of unruly wind 

44 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Within her womb ; which, for enlargement striving, 
Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down 
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth 
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature, 
In passion shook. 

— Part First, King Henry Fourth, Act III., Sc. I. 

Birth during a volcanic eruption. 

King Henry. Now, Lovell, from the queen what is the news ? 
Lovell. I could not personally deliver to her 

What you commanded me, but by her woman 

I sent your message; who returned her thanks 

In the greatest humbleness, and desired your highness 

Most heartily to pray for her. 
King Henry. What say'st thou? ha! 

To pray for her? What, is she crying out? 
Lovell. So said her woman; and that her sufferance made 

Almost each pang a death. 
King Henry. Alas, good lady ! 
Suffolk. God safely quit her of her burden, and 

With gentle travail, to the gladning of 

Your highness with an heir! 

— King Henry Eighth, Act V., Sc. i. 

Gloster. For I have often heard my mother say 

I came into the world with my legs forward : 
Had I not reason think ye, to make haste, 
And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right? 
The midwife wondered : and the woman cried, 
"O Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth !" 

— Part Third, King Henry Sixth, Act V., Sc. 6. 



Macduff. , Macduff was from his mother's womb 

Untimely ripp'd. 

—Macbeth, Act V., Sc. 7. 

Mother. Lucina lent me not her aid, 
But took me in my throes, 
That from me was Posthumus rip'd 
Came crying 'mongst his foes. 
A thing of pity. 

— Cymbcline, Act V., Sc. 4. 

Macduff, Posthumus and Caesar came into the world through the 

45 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



operation of Csesarian section. Indeed the operation takes 
its name from the fact that the great Julius Caesar was so 
brought into the world. 



Queen Elizabeth. And I the rather wean me from despair, 

For love of Edward's offspring in my womb : 
This is it that makes me bridle passion, 
And bear with mildness my misfortune's cross; 
Ay, ay, for this I draw in many a tear, 
And stop the rising of blood-sucking sigh?. 
Lest with my sighs or tears I blast or drown 
King Edward's fruit, true heir to the English crown. 
—Part Third, King Henry Sixth, Act IV., Sc. 4. 

Here we have a description of the emotions ; being powerful 
enough to cause the death of the unborn child. 

King Henry. First, methought, 

I stood not in the smile of heaven ; who had 
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb, 
If it conceived a male child by me, should 
Do no more offices of life to't, than 
The grave does to the dead : for her male issue 
Or died where they were made, or shortly after 
This world had air'd them: 

— King Henry Eighth, Act II., Sc. 4 

Death of the fetus and its retention in the womb, which was one 
of the king's excuses for seeking to divorce Queen Cath- 
erine. 



Paulina. This child was prisoner to the womb ; and is, 
By law and process of great nature, thence 
Free'd and enfranchis'd: not a party to 
The anger of the king; nor guilty of, 
If any be, the trespass of the queen. 

— Winter's Tale, Act II., Sc. 2. 

The sad tale of Perdita's abandonment ; the fate of Antigonas ; 
the wooing of Florizel ; the manner of the reconciliation of 
the king to his lost queen Hermione, makes a story of great 
interest. 

46 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



La Purcelle. (Joan of Arc). 

I am with child, ye bloody homicides: 
Murder not then the fruit within my womb, 
Although ye hale me to a violent death. 

— First Part, King Henry Sixth, Act V ., Sc. 4. 

This final appeal to the law which exempted one with child from 
capital punishment did not avail. 



THERAPEUTICS, PHARMACY AND 
TOXICOLOGY. 

Helena. You know my father left me some prescriptions 
Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading, 
And manifest experience had collected. 

— All's Well That Ends Well, Act I., Sc. 3- 



Lafeu. : I have seen a medicine 

That's able to breathe life into a stone; 

Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary, 

With sprightly fire and motion ; whose simple touch 

Is powerful to arrise King Pepin, nay, 

To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand 

And write to her a love-line. 

— All's Well That Ends Well. Act II., Sc. 1. 

This "medicine" is a charminsr "ladv doctor." 



Archidamus. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, unin- 
telligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little 
accuse us. 

— Winter's Tale, Act I., Sc. 1. 

Narcotic, doubtless opium as a decoction mixed with wine. 

Camillo. Sir, my lord, 

I could do this ; and that with no rash potion, 
But with a ling'ring dram, that should not work 
Maliciously like poison: 

—Winter's Tale, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Reference is elsewhere made to the poison given to work a long 
time after. 

47 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Florisel. Preserver of my father, now of me ; 

The medicine of our house ! 

— Winter's Tale, Act IV., Sc. 3. 



Abbess. Be patient: for I will not let him stir, 

Till I have used the approved means I have, 
With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers 
To make of him a formal man again: 

— Comedy of Errors, Act V., Sc. 1. 



Cordelia. What can man's wisdom do, 

In the restoring his bereaved sense? 
Physician. There is a means, madam : 

Our foster-nurse of nature is repose, 
The which he lacks ; that to provoke in him, 
Are many simples operative, whose power 
Will close the eye of anguish. 
Cordelia. All bless'd secrets, 

All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth, 
Spring with my tears ! be aidant, and remediate, 
In the good man's distress ! — 

— King Lear, Act IV., Sc. 4. 

"Simples operative" here refers to hypnotics and anodynes. 



Gonzalo. : you rub the sore, 

When you should bring the plaster, 
Antonio. And most chirurgeonly. 

— Tempest, Act II., Sc. 1. 



Costard. , no salve, sir, but a plain plantain ! 

— Love's Labor Lost, Act III., Sc. 1. 

When Moth refers to Costard's broken shin, Armado thinks it a 
riddle and calls for l'envoy meaning a salve. Costard sees no 
riddle, no enigma, no l'envoy, declaring that there is "no 
salve in them all." He wants but a plain plantain for his 
wound. 



Nurse. Is this the poultice for my aching bones? 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act II., Sc. 5. 

48 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Falstaff. Come let me pour in some sack to the Thames water; for 
my belly's as cold as I had swallowed snow-balls for pills to cool the reins — 
(passions.) Call her in. 

— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Sc. 5 

This quotation refers to the aphrodisiac action of alcoholic drinks. 
Sack was a strong white wine obtained in Shakspere's time 
from Italy and Spain. 



Cornelius. But I beseech your grace, (without offence; 

My conscience bids me ask;) wherefore you have 

Commanded of me those most poisonous compounds, 

Which are the movers of a languishing death ; 

But, though slow, deadly? 
Queen. I wonder, doctor, 

Thou ask'st me such a question : Have I not been 
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not Icarn'd me how 
To make perfumes? distill? preserve? yea, so, 
That our great King himself doth woo me oft 
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded, 
(Unless thou think'st me devilish) is't not meet 
That I did amplify my judgment in 
Other conclusions? I will try the forces 
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as 
We count not worth the hanging, (but none human.) 
To try the vigor of them, and apply 
Allayments to their act; and by them gather 
Their several virtues and effects. 
Cornelius. Your highness 

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart : 

Besides, the seeing these effects will be 

Both noisome and infectious. 

(Aside) I do not like her. She doth think she has 

Strange lingering poisons : 

* * * * * Those she has 

Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile : 

Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats and dogs : 

Then afterward up higher : but there is 

No danger in what show of death it makes, 

More than the locking up the spirits a time, 

To be more, fresh reviving. 

— Cymbclinc, Act I., Sc. 6. 

Here we find mention of vivisection or the testing of remedies on 
the lower animals. 

49 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Pisano. Here is a box: I had it from the queen; 

What's in't is precious; if you are sick at sea, 
Or stomach-qualmed at land, a dram of this 

Will drive away distemper. 

— Cymbeline, Act III., Sc. 4. 

This box it will be remembered contained poison, intended for 
Imogene, of whom the Queen was jealous. 

Cornelius. She did confess she had 

For you a mortal mineral ; which, being took, 
Should by the minute feed on life, and ling'ring 
By inches waste you : 

********* 

The queen, sir, very oft importun'd me 
To temper poisons for her; still pretending 
The satisfaction of her knowledge only 
In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs, 
Of no esteem : I, dreading that her purpose 
Was of more danger, did compound for her 
A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease 
The present power of life; but, in short time, 
All offices of nature should again 
Do their due functions. 

— Cymbeline, Act V., Sc. 5. 

The learned class in Shakespeare's time and for ages before were 
much given to the study of chemistry and, in a way, phar- 
macy ; chemistry in the hope of fame and fortune, pharmacy 
more for the poisonous substances than the curative remedies. 
To poison an enemy was the easiest means of getting rid of 
him without the friends being able to fasten the guilt upon 
any one. Analytical chemistry had not been so developed 
as to make the detection of poisons certain. For this reason 
the practice of wholesale and individual cases of poisonings 
were, as history informs us, so general. 

Banquo. Were such things here as we do speak about? 
Or have we eaten on the insane root 
That takes the reason prisoner? 

— Macbeth, Act I., Sc. 3. 

Hemlock was called the insane root because it was supposed to 
cause insanity in those who used it. 

50 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Lady Macbeth. I have drugged their possets, 

That death and nature do contend about them 
Whether they live, or die. 

— Macbeth, Act II. , Sc. 2. 



Evidently opium in some form. 



Porter. and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. 

Macduff. What three things does drink especially provoke? 

Porter. Marry, sir, nose painting, sleep, and urine. 

Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes ; it provokes the 
desire, but it takes away the performance : therefore much drink may be 
said to be an equivocator with lechery : it makes him, and it mars him ; it 
sets him on, and it takes him off ; it persuades him, and disheartens him ; 
makes him stand to, and not stand to : in conclusion, equivocates him in a 
sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him. 

—Macbeth, Act II., Sc. 3. 

A clear and concise statement of the effects of alcohol, particularly 
its effect upon the sexual organs. 



Witches. Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark; 
Liver of blaspheming Jew ; 
Gall of goat, and slip of yew, 
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse. 

—Macbeth, Act IV., Sc. 1. 

It is difficult to isolate the drugs or poisons made use of by 
Shakspere. The poison is needed to work out in part the 
wishes of the author and it does not appear that he always 
knew of their exact toxicological action. However, the 
dramatic effect is ever in evidence ; when wanted they serve a 
well defined purpose. 



Brabantio. Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense, 

That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms ; 
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals, 
That weaken motion : — I'll have it disputed on ; 
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking. 
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee. 
For an abuser of the world, a practiser 
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant. 



51 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



I therefore vouch again, 

That with some mixture powerful o'er the blood, 
Or with some dram conjured to this effect. 
He wrought upon her. 

—Othello, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Charms and love potions were thought to influence either sex 
and was a means to secure the affections of the one loved. 
Even to this day the negro of the South believes in charms. 
Magnetic ore is most efficient and needs but to be carried 
by one to have the effect of a hoodoo or evil charm made 
inoperative while love-powders are often used, druggists 
selling some harmless powder to be used in the food or drink 
unknown to the taker. 



Iago. ; fill thy purse with money : the food that to him now is as 
luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. 

—Othello, Act I., Sc. 3. 

Colocvnth. 



Iago. Look, where he comes ! Not poppy, nor mandragora, 
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 
Which thou ow'dest yesterday. 

—Othello, Act III., Sc. 3. 

Unhappy and doomed Othello. Never were loyalty and perfect 
love so abused. Calumny, deceit, ingratitude, nor the fiends 
of hell were enemies like unto your Ancient. Brave, and 
courageous to a degree, ready to meet like the gladiators in 
Rome any number of goodly men in single combat, thy strong 
heart, fearless of injury, soldier to the core, this is not of 
the kind thou hast met ; she the chaste, the beautiful, the good 
must be assassinated and thy noble self damned in self 
destruction. Aside from Hamlet and Lear, there is no 
character in fiction so real, so human to which the student 
of psychology can turn with so much profit. Alas, unhappy 
Othello. 

Iago. The Moor already changes with my poison : 

Dangerous conceits are, in their nature, poisons : 

52 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste; 
But, with a little act upon the blood, 
Burn like the mines of sulphur. 

—Othello, Act III., Sc. 3. 



Othello. Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 
Their medicinal gum. 



-Othello, Act V., Sc. 2. 



Cleopatra. Ha, ha ! 

Give me to drink mandragora. 
Charmian. Why, made.m? 
Cleopatra. That I might sleep out this great-gap of time, 

My Antony is away. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act I., Sc. 5. 

Mandragora a hypnotic was also esteemed an aphrodisiac. 



Falsiaff. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love 
him, I'll be hanged ; it could not be else ; I have drunk medicines. — 
Poins. Hal ! a plague upon you both. 

— Part First, King Henry Fourth, Act II., Sc. 2. 

This passage refers to the aphrodisiac action of some drug taken 
with drink. 



Falstaff. 



faster it grows. 



-though the chamomile, the more it is trodden, the 
— Part First, King Henry Fourth, Act II., Sc. 4. 



King Henry. And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends ; 
A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in ; 
That the united vessel of their blood. 
Mingle with venom of suggestion, 
(As, force perforce, the age will pour it in,) 
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong 
As aconitum, or rash gunpowder. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act IV., Sc. 4. 



Hubert. The king, I fear, is poisoned by a monk : 

I left him almost speechless, and broke out 
To acquaint yon with this evil ; that you might 

53 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



The better arm you to the sudden time, 
Than if you had at leisure known of this. 
Bastard. How did he take it? Who did taste to him? 

Hubert. A monk, I tell you ; a resolved villain, 

Whose bowels suddenly burst out : the king 
Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover. 

— King John, Act V ., Sc. 6. 

The quotation "bowels suddenly burst out" doubtless refers to a 
sudden diarrhea which is a symptom of arsenical poisoning. 
It will be remembered the King was poisoned presumably by 
arsenic, as was the monk who to induce him to partake, 
himself drank a portion of the fluid. 

Norfolk. What are you chaf'd? 

Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only, 
Which your disease requires. 

— King Henry Eighth, Act I., Sc. i. 

Duke of Suffolk. Wherefore should I curse? 

Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan, 
I would invent as bitter searching terms, 
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear, 

As lean-faced envy. 
— Part Second, King Henry Sixth, Act III., Sc. 2. 




MANDRAGORA ROOT. 



Mandrake here mentioned is not our May apple but a species of 
solanacea, which flourishes in Asia Minor. It is identified 
with the mandragora so often mentioned by Shakspere. 

Frequent mention of mandragora is made by the classic writers. 
It was esteemed as possessing other than medicinal or toxi- 

54 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



cological properties, because of the superstition that it grew 
best and possessed greater worth when grown over the buried 
remains of an executed criminal. The peculiar shape of the 
roots — forked and divergent — gives it a somewhat human- 
like appearance. The gods of mythology were supposed to 
make frequent use of this plant and its roots. When the 
plant was pulled from above the dead, groans and shrieks 
were heard and those who were unfortunate enough to hear 
them either died at once or became insane. It can, therefore, 
be easily imagined that the great peril in securing so valuable 
a plant induced those wishing it to resort to some measure 
that would free the person from the hearing of the fatal 
noises. One method was to entice a dog into the burial 
ground, fasten him by cords to the plant, and after sealing 
one's ears with some substance which would prevent hearing 
the perilous sounds, run for life ; the dog would struggle to 
follow and thus tearing the plant from the ground bring it 
to his master, who happily escaped the miserable end. The 
dog was, however, a sacrifice, as he was soon to perish. 
Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Sc. 3, refers to this supersti- 
tion regarding the evil sounds : — 

"For these many hundred years the bones 
Of all my buried ancestors are packed 

^ ^ % ^ '■'?• * ^ * 

So early waking, — what with loathsome smells, 

And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, 

That living mortals, hearing them run mad." 

It was esteemed as a local anesthetic, having been given as a wine 
of mandragora to those about to be crucified. 

The mandrake or mandragora is found by modern investiga- 
tions to possess narcotic properties — producing in some 
instances hysterical excitability — as well as being a hypnotic- 
similar in action to belladonna. An alkaloid has been 
extracted which has properties similar to the mydriatics, 
atropin and hyoscyamin. It was used by the ancients also as 
an aphrodisiac. 

Friar Lawrence. Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, 

The day to cheer, and night's dank dew lo dry, 

55 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



I must up fill this osier cage of ours 

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers. 

:)« H« * * * + -K ^ 

Many for many virtues excellent, 

None but for some, and yet all different, 

O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies 

In herbs, plants, stone, and their true qualities : 

Within the infant rind of this weak flower 
Poison hath residence and med'cine power; 
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part ; 
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act II., Sc. 3. 

Friar Lawrence. Take thou this phial, being then in bed, 
And this distilled liquor drink thou off: 
When, presently, through all thy veins shall run 
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse shall keep 
His natural progress, but surcease to beat : 
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou iiv'st, 
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade 
To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall, 
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life ; 
Each part, depriv'd of supple government, 
Shall, stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like death. 
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death 
Thou shalt remain full two-and-forty-hours, 
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Sc. 1. 

It is impossible to say what, if any drug or combination of drugs 
was used by Friar Lawrence to produce this semblance of 
death in Juliet. We know that there are numerous narcotics 
which will produce prolonged sleep, but in all cases the 
pulse is in evidence. There is also bodily warmth and 
breathing which can be determined. Opium which was 
largely used in Shakspere's time and in fact for centuries 
before could not have been the drug here described. While 
opium pushed to complete narcosis will produce apparent 
death, there would surely be recovery or death short of "two 
and forty hours." Besides this semblance of death would 
have been discovered by the stertorous breathing, and this 
alone would have been sufficient to disclose to Paris, life in 
Juliet. 

56 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Mandragora as elsewhere stated was regarded as a most powerful 
narcotic and anesthetic. It was given to condemned criminals 
before their execution to lessen their mental distress, but 
from our present knowledge of this drug it could not have 
produced the effects described by Friar Lawrence. How- 
ever, we must make a certain allowance for poetic license, 
and stand amazed at so complete and accurate a description 
of drug narcosis. 

It has occurred to me that the condition of Juliet was brought 
about through hypnosis or suggestion. We know that a 
condition of catalepsy can be produced through hypnosis 
and that this state could exist for a considerable time without 
injury to the subject. This was probably what was resorted 
to by the good Friar. Men of his class and calling were well 
versed in occult and other sciences, in fact but that they 
were more or less conversant with science and thus able to 
pass their knowledge to their successors we would have 
lost much of what we now know of ancient science, art and 
literature, during the medieval or dark ages when it was 
only the church that was able to preserve this knowledge. 



Romeo. I do remember an apothecary, — 

And hereabout he dwells, — whom late I noted 
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows. 
Culling his simples ; meagre were his looks, 
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones : 
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung. 
An Alligator stuff d, and other skins 
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves 
A beggarly account of empty boxes, 
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seed-, 
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, 
Were thinly scattered to make up a show. 
Noting this penury, to myself I said — 
An if a man did need a poison now, 
Whose sale is present death in Mantua, 
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him. 
O, this same thought did but forerun my need ; 
And this same needy man must sell it me. 
As I remember, this should be the house; 
Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut, — 
What, ho ! apothecary ! 

Apothecary. Who calls so loud? 

57 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Romeo. Come, hither, man. — I see that thou art poor; 
Hold, there is forty ducats : let me have 
A dram of poison : such soon-speeding gear 
As will dispose itself through all the veins, 
That the life-weary taker may fall dead, 
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath 
As violently, as hasty powder fir'd 
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. 

Apothecary. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law 
Is death to any he that utters them. 

Romeo. Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, 
And fear'st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks, 
Need and oppression stareth in thine eyes, 
Upon thy back hangs ragged misery ; 
The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law ; 
The world affords no law to make thee rich ; 
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this. 

Apothecary. My poverty, but not my will, consents. 

Romeo. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will. 

Apothecary. Put this in any liquid thing you will, 

And drink it off; and, if you had the strength 
Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight. 

Romeo. There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, 
Doing more murther in this loathsome world, 
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell : 
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. 
Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh. 
Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me 
To Juliet's grave, for there I must use thee. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act V ., Sc. J. 

This could have been one or more of many drugs. It was probably 
aconite. 

Shakspere has given us much of his knowledge of pharmacy, in 
Romeo and Juliet. Romeo's description of the apothecary 
is familiar to all. "A beggarly account of empty boxes" is 
still much in evidence in the drug store. As we advance in 
hygienic and sanitary knowledge the necessity for drugs 
becomes less. Were it not for the cigar case, the soda 
fountain, the toilet goods and other accessories to the drug 
store, there would be fewer stores. 



Romeo. O, true apothecary ! 

Thy drugs are quick. — Thus with a kiss I die. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act V ., Sc. 

58 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Ghost. With juice of cursed hebenon, 

: whose effect 

Holds such an enmity with biood of man 
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through 
The natural gates and alleys of the body; 
And, with a sudden vigour, it dost posset 
And curd, like aigre* droppings into milk, 

The thin and wholesome blood : 

— Hamlet, Act L, Sc. 5. 

Hebenon is here a word of doubtful meaning. It probably refers 
to henbane or hyoscyamus niger. The quarto editions 
of Shakspere have it hebona. The folio which I prefer to 
follow, hebenon. Henbane is a poisonous plant especially 
destructive to domestic fowls; hence this name henbane. It 
does not produce leprous symptoms as detailed by the Ghost, 
but the law of signatures — i.e., some outward sign appearing 
on plants, minerals and other objects, superstitiously believed 
in ancient times to indicate a medicinal quality, as for 
instance, the yellow color of certain flowers was believed to 
show their efficacy in jaundice — prevailed in Shakspere's 
time, and the leprous effects may have been founded on the 
clammy appearance of the plant. 

Dodoeus decribed a species of yew as being "altogether venomous 
and against man's nature. Such as do but slepe under the 
shadow thereof become sicke, and sometimes they die." 

Henbane juice was used by the Gauls to poison their arrows. 

Laertes. And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword. 
I bought an unction of a mountebank, 
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, 
Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare, 
Collected from all simples that have virtue 
Under the moon, can save the thing from death. 
That is but scratch'd withal : I'll touch my point 
With this contagion; that, if I gall him slightly, 
It may be death. 

—Hamlet, Act IV.. Sc. 7. 

Certain alkaloids were used, among them curare, by the South 
American natives to anoint their arrow points when at war 
with their enemies. One wounded by these arrows was 
almost sure to die within a few hours. Blyth states in his 

*Acid. 

59 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



work on poisons that the early savages discovered that 
weapons soiled with the blood of former victims made wounds 
fatal. From these observations it was only a step to experi- 
ment with plants, etc., as a result the juices of several plants 
were found to cause fatal wounds. 



ANATOMY. 

Clown. Thou hast spoken for us, Madonna, as if thy eldest son should 
be a fool ; whose skull Jove cram with brains, for here he comes ; one of 
thy kin has a most weak pia mater. 

—Twelfth Night, Act I., Sc. 5. 

Pia-mater used in this connection refers to its instrumentality in 
the intellectual development of the individual. Pia-mater 
is also referred to in Troilus and Cressida, Act II., Sc. 1. 



Hamlet. My fate cries out 

And makes each petty artery in this body — 
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. 

—Hamlet, Act. I., Sc. 4. 



•Queen. Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, 
Starts up and stands on end, — 

—Hamlet, Act HI., Sc. 4. 



Antipholus of S. Why is time such a niggard of hair, being, as it is, 
so plentiful an excrement? 

— Coinedy of Errors, Act II. , Sc. 2. 



Autolycus. Let me pocket up my pedler's excrement, 
(Takes off his false beard.) 

—Winter's Tale, Act IF.. Sc. 3. 



Armado. ; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my 

excrement, with my mustachio. 

— Love's Labour Lost, Act V ., Sc. 1. 

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SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Bassanio. And these assume but valour's excrement, 
To render them redoubted. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. 2. 

The word excrement is frequently used by Shakspere to describe 
the hair which is properly an excrementitious substance. 
Excrement is defined as an appendage or excrescence. 

Sir Toby. For Andrew, if he were opened, and you find so much blood 
in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I'll eat the rest of the anatomy. 

—Twelfth Night, Act III., Sc. 2. 

Sir Toby's estimate of Sir Andrew Aguecheek's courage was in 
no way exaggerated as the meeting between him and Viola 
later clearly proves. 

The liver was not only considered the seat of courage but of 
love, and for the liver to be without blood was to indicate 
the coward. White livered (bloodless livered) was a com- 
mon epithet applied to those lacking in courage. 



PHYSIOLOGY. 

Brutus. You are my true and honorable wife; 
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 
That visit my sad heart. 

— Tulius Casar, Act II., Sc. I. 

Shakspere here displays what seems to be a marvellous acquaint- 
ance with physiology as well as with medicine. The last 
two foregoing lines, as quoted, indicate a knowledge of the 
circulation of the blood. Again in Hamlet (Act I., Sc. 5) 
we find : 

"Holds such an enmity with blood of man 



That swift as quicksilver it courses through 

The natural gates and alleys of the body; 

And with a sudden vigor it doth posset (coagulate) 

And curd, like aigre* droppings into milk, 

The thin and wholesome blood ;" 

This is indeed in anticipation of Harvey. The play of Hamlet 
was first printed in 1603 while Harvey made known his 

*Acid. 

6l 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628, although 
he states in his Exercitatio-Anatomisa de Motu Cordis et 
Sanguinis that he had for nine years been demonstrating- the 
subject in his lectures at the College of Physicians in London. 
Even this would, if allowed, carry him back only as far as 
1619 or sixteen years after the first appearance in print of 
Hamlet. Julius Caesar was first published in 1623. 
See also page 63 for a confirmation of Shakspere's knowledge 
of the circulation of the blood. 

Menenius. There was a time when all the body's members 
Rebell'd against the belly ; thus accus'd it : — 
That only like a gulf it did remain 
I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, 
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing 
Like labour with the rest; when the other instruments 
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 
And mutually participate ; did minister 
Unto the appetite and affection common 
Of the whole body. The belly answered, — 

Second Citizen. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? 

Menenius. Sir, I shall tell you. — With a kind of smile, 

Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus, 

(For look you, I may make the belly smile 

As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied 

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts 

That envied his receipt; even so most fitly 

As you malign our senators, for that 

They are not such as you. 

Second Citizen. Your belly's answer: What! 

The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye, 
The counsellor heart, the arm of our soldier, 
Our steed the leg, the tongue the trumpeter, 
With other muniments and petty helps 
In this our fabric, if that they 

Menenius. When then? — 

'Fore me this fellow speaks! — What then? What then? 

Second Citizen. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd 
Who is the sink o' the body. 

Menenius. Well, what then? 

Second Citizen. The former agents, if they did complain, 
What could the belly answer? 

Menenius. I will tell you ; 

If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little. 
Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer. 

62 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Note me this, good friend, 
Your most grave belly was deliberate, 
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd. 
"True is it, my incorporate friends," quoth he, 
"That I receive the general food at first, 
Which you do live upon : and fit it is ; 
Because I am the storehouse, and the shop 
Of the whole body: But if you do remember, 
I send it through the rivers of your blood, 
Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain, 
And through the cranks and offices of man : 
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins 
From me receive that natural competency 
Whereby they live : And though that all at once, 
You, my good friends, ("this says the belly,") mark me, — 
********** 

"Though all at once cannot 
See what I do deliver out to each ; 
Yet can I make my audit up, that all 
From me do back receive the flour of all, 
And leave me but the bran." 

******** * 

The senators of Rome are this good belly, 

And you the mutinous members : For examine 

Their councils and their cares ; digest things rightly, 

Touching the weal o' the common ; you shall find, 

No public benefit, which you receive, 

But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, 

And no way from yourselves. — What do you think? 

You, the great toe of this assembly? — 

— Coriolanus, Act I., Sc. i. 

Truly, here is a startlingly accurate statement of digestion and 
nutrition and the part played by the intestines, since the belly 
means the abdominal cavity. Here also is confirmation of 
Shakspere's knowledge of the circulation of the blood : 

"I send it through the rivers of your blood 
Even to the court, the heart." 

Capulet. My child is yet a stranger in the world ; 

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. 

Let two more summers wither in their pride, 

Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. 
Paris. Younger than she are happy mothers made. 
Capulet. And too soon marr'd are those so early made. 

— Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. 2. 

Pubertv is here placed at fourteen Years. 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Paulina. Behold, my lords, 

Although the print be little, the whole matter 

And copy of the father; eye, nose, lip, 

The trick of his frown, his forehead ; nay, the valley, 

The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek; his smiles; 

The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger; 

And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it 

So like to him that got it, if thou hast 

The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colors 

No yellow in't; lest she suspect, as he does, 

Her children not her husband's ! 

— Winter's Tale, Act II. , Sc. 3. 

Inheritance of physical, moral and mental traits. 



Oberon. And the blots of nature's hand 
Shall not in their issue stand ; 
Nor mole, hare-lip, nor scar, 
Nor mark prodigious, such as are 
Despised in nativity. 
Shall upon their children be. 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V ., Sc. 2. 



Bastard. Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son ; 
Sir Robert might have eat his part in me 
Upon Good Friday, and ne'er broke his fast : 
Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it; 
We know his handy- work : — Therefore, good mother, 
To whom am I beholden for these limbs? 
Sir Robert never holp to make this leg. 

— King John. Act I., Sc. 1. 

The law of heredity is here clearly stated. 



Lepidus. I must not think there are 

Evils enow to darken all his goodness : 
His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, 
More fiery by night's blackness ; hereditary 
Rather than purchased ; what he cannot change, 
Than what he chooses. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act I., Sc. 4. 



Holof ernes. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple ; a foolish ex- 
travagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, 

64 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



motions, revolutions : these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished 
in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion: 

— Love's Labour Lost, Act IV., Sc. 2. 

Pia mater, (dutiful or kind mother) is elsewhere used by Shak- 
spere but with entirely different meaning. In Twelfth Night, 
Act I., Sc. 5, for instance, it refers to the brain or rather, 
intellect. The Clown declares to Olivia "You have a relative 
with a most weak pia-mater." Here, however, it refers to 
the membrane covering the brain. 

The belief was and is that the brain is nourished through the pia 
mater, hence to have a weak pia mater was to have a weak 
intellect. 

The ventricle of memory refers to an ancient theory that there 
were only three ventricles in the brain. In the first ventricle 
we had the origin of the "five wits" or special senses, in the 
second, thought, and in the third, memory (Ventricle of 
memory). 

This evidence — profound as it is — of the Master's knowledge of 
the physiology of the brain is but one of many evidences of 
his prodigious learning. How and where he found opportuni- 
ties to acquire such knowledge amazes even the learned of 
to-day. If other evidence of Shakspere's right to membership 
in the Guild of Medicine were wanting, this and the reference 
to the physiological functions of digestion and assimilation 
as exhibited in Coriolanus, Act I., Sc. 1, would be amply 
sufficient. 

Suffolk. For Henry, son unto a conqueror, 
Is likely to beget more conquerors, 
If with a lady of so high resolve 
As is fair Margaret he be link'd in love. 

— Part First, King Henry Sixth, Act V., Sc. 5. 

Second Lord. That such a crafty devil as is his mother 

Should yield the world this ass ! a woman, that 
Bears all down with her brain ; and this her son 
Cannot take two from twenty for his heart, 
And leave eighteen. 

— Cymbcline, Act II., Sc. 1. 

Showing absence of hereditary traits of character ; thus reversing 
the law of heredity. 

65 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Duchess. He is my son, ay, and therein my shame, 
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit. 

— King Richard Third, Act II., Sc. 2. 

Here we have our attention directed to the belief still held by 
many, that mental and moral traits of character are influenced 
through the character of her who suckles the child. 



Friar. I have marked 

A thousand blushing apparitions start 
Into her face ; a thousand innocent shames 
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes; 
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire, 
To burn the errors that these princes hold 
Against her maiden truth : 

— Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV., Sc. i. 

We have here evidence that the Master was a keen observer. 



Charmian. Nay, if an oily palm be not fruitful prognostication, I 
cannot scratch mine ear. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act I., Sc. 2. 

A moist or oily palm was considered an evidence of fruitfulness. 



Othello. Give me your hand : This hand is moist my lady. 
Desdcmona. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow. 
Othello. This argues fruitfulness, and liberal heart: 

Hot, hot and moist; this hand of yours requires 

A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer, 

Much castigation, exercise devout ; 

For here's a young and sweating devil here, 

That commonly rebels. 

—Othello, Act III., Sc. 4 



Lear. Hear, Nsture, hear; dear goddess, hear! 
Suspend thy purpose, if thou did'st intend 
To make this creature fruitful ! 
Into her womb convey sterility ; 
Dry up in her the organs of increase; 
And from her derogate body never spring 
A babe to honor her ! If she must teem, 
Create her child of spleen, that it may live, 

66 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her ! 
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth; 
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks; 
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits 
To laughter and contempt; thus she may feel 
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child ! — 

— King Lear, Act I., Sc. 4. 

Lear's curse, an unequalled effort, so horrible in its conception 
and forceful in its execution, is inserted as an evidence of the 
Master's versatility, as well as its reference to physiological 
processes. 



Theseus. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, 
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, 
You can endure the livery of a nun ; 
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, 
To live a barren sister all your life, 
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 
Thrice blessed they, that master so their blood. 
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage : 
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd. 
Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, 
Grows, lives and dies, in single blessedness. 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I., Sc. 1. 

That it is not good for man to dwell alone may be better said of 
woman. Speaking only of the physical side and leaving the 
moral issue to other and more competent minds, my observa- 
tion is that the desire for maternity is natural to woman. 
This is strikingly apparent from the earliest age. The 
care bestowed upon the doll by the child is evidently but a 
beginning of this physiological demand, for the mature 
woman is but the accentuated child. She has outgrown the 
doll with its miniature cradle and baby carriage which gave 
so much pleasure and yearns for a child of her own, flesh 
of her flesh, blood of her blood. This desire of maternity 
is one of nature's laws. An attachment to some constant 
object is demanded which is to last through life, and in 
maternity is again the babe to be followed by the doll, make- 
believe housekeeping all to the end that such wise laws as 

6/ 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



governs our existence may be again and again made active. 
The Master gives us some beautiful examples of perfect love 
and enduring attachment. Rosalind, Ophelia, Desdemona, 
Viola, Olivia and our sweet Juliet. These are the women to 
whom men can bear eternal allegiance, it is not to the Ladies 
Macbeth. 



Ccesar. Let me have men about me that are fat; 

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights : 
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; 
He thinks too much : such men are dangerous. 

— Julius Ccesar, Act I., Sc. 2. 



Falstaff. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? 
Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk and big assemblance of a 
man ! Give me the spirit, master Shallow. — Here's Wart ; — you see what 
a ragged appearance it is : he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the 
motion of a pewterer's hammer ; come off, and on, swifter than he that 
gibbets on the brewer's bucket. And the same half-faced fellow, Shallow, — 
give me this man ; he presents no mark to the enemy ; the foeman may with 
as great aim level at the edge of a penknife. And, for a retreat, — how 
swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor run off ! O, give me the spare 
man, and spare me the great ones. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act III., Sc. 2. 

The best and most enduring soldiers are those of spare build. 

Bassanio. How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false 
As stayers of sand, wear yet upon their chins 
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars, 
Who inward search'd have livers white as milk. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. 2. 

In the folio edition "Stayers of sand" appears instead of stairs in 
the quarto. Stayers seems to convey the meaning rather than 
stairs. Stair is from the Anglo-Saxon stigan to ascend, while 
stay — thence stayer — from the Teutonic stehen, to stand. 
Here are cowards, not stayers. "Stayers of sand" mean vain 
defenses of sand to be easily overthrown, notwithstanding 
they represent men with warlike beards and frames. 

Shylock. Some men there are love not a gaping pig; 
Some, that are mad if they behold a cat; 

68 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



And others, when the bagpipe sings i' the nose, 

Cannot contain their urine ; for affection, 

Master of the passions, sways it to the mood 

Of what it likes, or loathes. Now for your answer. 

As there is no firm reason to be render'd, 

Why he cannot abide a gaping pig; 

Why he, a harmless necessary cat; 

Why he a woollen bagpipe, — but of force 

Must >ield to such inevitable shame, 

As to offend, himself being offended; 

— Merchant of Venice, Act IV., Sc. 4. 

Numerous historic references could be cited of the eccentricities 
of men, and Shakspere but refers to what is well recognized 
by the medical man. 



Malvolio. This does make some obstruction in the blood, 
This cross-gartering. 

—Twelfth Night, Act III., Sc. 4. 

Those who for fashion's sake war upon nature, must needs pay the 
penalty. 



Mcncnins. He was not taken well ; he had not dined : 
The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold and then 
We pout upon the morning, are unapt 
To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff 'd 
These pipes and these conveyances of our blood 
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls 
Than in our priest-like fasts; therefore I'll watch him 
'Till he be dieted to my request, 
And then I'll set upon him. 

—Coriolanus, Act V., Sc. 1. 

Menenius had evidently made the acquaintance of the post- 
prandial temper of the good liver. 

Hamlet. I'll tent him to the quick; if he do blench, 
I know my course. 

—Hamlet, Act III., Sc. 2. 

To tent or probe, in this instance refers to an attack on the 
King's conscience, to accuse him of his supposed crime. If 
he do blench (blanch) turn white or pale with fear at the 

69 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



accusing, Hamlet will be convinced of his guilt and know 
what course to pursue. 

King John. Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, 

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick; 
(Which, else, runs trickling up and down the veins, 
Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes, 
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment, 
A passion hateful to my purposes;) 

— King John, Act TIL, Sc. 3 

The reader will refer to the comments on the circulation of the 
blood on page 61. 



Adam. Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; 
For in my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquor in my blood; 
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo 
The means of weakness and debility; 
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 
Frosty but kindly: 

—As You Like It, Act II., Sc. 2. 

What a temperance lecture is here given us. 



Antony. What, girl? though gray 

Do something mingle with our young brown ; 
Yet ha' we a brain that nourishes our nerves, 
And can get goal for goal of youth. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV., Sc. 8. 

Comment is unnecessary. 



Duchess. Have we more sons? or are we like to have? 
Is not my teeming date drank up with time? 
And wilt thou pluck my fair son from mine age, 
And rob me of a happy mother's name? 

— King Richard Second, Act V '., Sc. 2. 

Cessation of childbearing and approach of the menopause. 

Jacques. All the world's a stage, 

And all the men and women merely players : 

70 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



They have their exits, and their entrances ; 

And one man in his time plays many parts, 

His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, 

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms ; 

Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel, 

And shining morning face, creeping like snail 

Unwillingly to school ; and then, the lover, 

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad 

Made to his mistress' eyebrow : then, a soldier ; 

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like a pard, 

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, 

Seeking the bubble reputation 

Even in the cannon's mouth: and then, the justice; 

In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd, 

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, 

Full of wise saws and modern instances, 

And so he plays his part: The sixth age shifts 

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon ; 

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side ; 

His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide 

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, 

Turning towards childish treble, pipes 

And whistles in his sound : last scene of all, 

That ends this strange eventful history, 

Is second childishness, and mere oblivion ; 

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 

— As You Like It, Act II., Sc. ;-. 

From birth to senile decay. This marvellously constructed history 
of man is inserted, as it gives us all of life from the cradle 
to the grave, with so much of truth, that it may as properly 
have place in a work of this kind as some quotations whose 
meaning; is rather obscure. 



Pinch. Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse. 

— Comedy of Errors, Act IV., Sc. 4. 



Host. : your pnlsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would 

desire. 

— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act II., Sc. 4. 



Alonzo. thy pulse 

Beats, as of flesh and blood; 



-Tempest, Act V., Sc. I. 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Pericles. But are you flesh and blood? 

Have you a working pulse? and are no fairy-motion? 

—Pericles, Act V ., Sc. i. 



HYGIENE AND DIETETICS. 



Longsville. Fat paunches have lean pates ; and dainty bits 
Make rich the ribs, but banker out the wits. 

Love's Labour Lost, Act I., Sc. I. 



King. So it is, besieged with sable-colored melancholy, I did com- 
mend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy 
health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. 

— Love's Labour Lost, Act I., Sc. i. 



Biron. Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young; 
And abstinence engenders maladies. 

********* 

Why, universal plodding prisons up 
The nimble spirits in the arteries. 

— Love's Labour Lost, Act IV., Sc. 3. 



Titania. , have sucked up from the sea, 

Contagious fogs. 

******* 

**** • anc ] t] le green corn 



Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard : 
The fold stands empty in the drowned field. 
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; 
The nine men's morris is filled up with mud; 
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, 
For lack of tread, are undistinguishable : 
The human mortals want; their winter here, 
No night is now with hymn or carol blest: — 
That rheumatic diseases do abound : 
And through this distemperature, we see 
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts 
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; 
And on old Hyem's thin and icy crown, 
An odorless chaplet of sweet summer buds, 
Is, as in mockery set : The spring, the summer, 

72 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



The childing autumn, angry winter, change 
Their wonted liveries. 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Sc. 2. 



Evidently a very unhealthy place. 



Demitrius. But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food 
But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it, 
And will for evermore be true to it. 

— Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV., Sc. r. 



Sir Andrew. Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian 
or an ordinary man has ; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that 
does harm to my wit. 

—Twelfth Night, Act L, Sc. 5. 

We find a reference to the effects of beef eating also in Troilus 
and Cressida, Act II. "Thou mongrel beef-witted lord!" 
while "with no more wit than an ox" is often quoted. Halli- 
well quotes Borde in the Regyment of Healthe 1567 (Regi- 
men of Health) "Beefe is good meate for an Englishman, so 
be it the beeste be yonge, and that it be not cow flesshe, for old 
beefe and cowe flesshe doth engendre melancholy and lep- 
rouse humours." All of which would lead us to understand 
that a too constant diet of beef was not conducive to a perfect 
or active mental state or to a quick wit. 



Nerissa. And yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with 
too much, as they that starve with nothing : It is no small happiness, there- 
fore to be sated in the mean; superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but 
competency lives longer. 

— Merchant of Venice, Act I., Sc. 2. 

This aphorism applies to-day as well as in Shakspere's time. 



Second Lord. But I am sure, the younger of our nature, 

That surfeit on their ease, will, day by day, 
Come here for physic. 

— All's Well That Ends Well, Act III., Sc. 1. 

The medicine meant here is not necessarily a cathartic. 

73 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Petruchio. I tell thee, Kate, 'twas burnt and dried away; 
And I expressly am forbid to touch it, 
For it engenders choler, planteth anger; 
And better 'twere that both of us did fast, 
Since of ourselves, ourselves are choleric, 
Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh. 

— Taming of the Shrew, Act IV., Sc. i. 

We have here the mental effect rather than the physical in being 
compelled to eat of "burnt meat." 



Clown. ; that such a one, and such a one, were past cure 

of the things you wot of, unless they keep very good diet. 

— Measure for Measure, Act II., Sc. I. 



Hotspur. ; worse than the sun in March, 

This praise doth nourish agues. 

— Part First, King Henry Fourth, Act IV., Sc. i. 



Falstaff. , for I'll purge, and leave sack and live cleanly, as 

a nobleman should do. 

— Part First, King Henry Fourth, Act V '., Sc. 5. 

Even to this day it is thought that purging and tonics or blood 
purifiers taken in the spring prepares one to enjoy good health 
the rest of the year. 



i 



Falstaff. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof; 
for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish-meals, 
that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they 
marry, they get wenches ; they are generally fools and cowards ; — which 
some of us should be too, but for inflammation. 

********* * * * 

If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I w-ould teach them 
should be, — to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack. 
— Part Second, King Henry Fourth, Act IV., Sc. 3. 

There is no need nowadays to teach young men "to forsv/ear thin 
potations." The omnipresent cocktail could not be con- 
sidered such. 

74 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Cardinal IVolsey. Sir, 

For holy offices I have a time ; a time 
To think upon the part of business, which 
I hear i' the state ; and nature doth require 
Her time of preservation, which, perforce, 
I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal, 
Must give my tendance to. 

—King Henry Eighth, Act III., Sc. 2. 



Timon. (To Alcibiades) Be as planetary plague, when Jove 
Will o'er some high vie'd city hang the poison 
In the sick air. 

— Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. 3. 



Hastings. The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy, 

And his physicians fear him mightily. 
Glostcr. O, he hath kept an evil diet long. 

And over much consumed his royal person : 

-King Richard Third, Act I., Sc 



Coriolanus. Bid them wash their faces, 

And keep their teeth clean, — 

— Coriolanus, Act II.- Sc. 



Coriolanus. , against those measles 

Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought 
The very way to catch them. 

— Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. 1. 



Portia. What mean you? Wherefore rise you now? 
It is not for your health thus to commit 
Your weak condition to the raw-cold morning. 
******** 

Is Brutus sick? and is it physical 
To walk unbraced, and suck up the humours 
Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick, 
And he will steal out of his wholesome bed. 
To dare the vile contagion of the night 
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air 
To add unto his sickness? 

— Julius Casar, Act II., Sc. 1. 

Recent experiments and researches show that malaria is not found 

75 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



alone in the "humours of the dank morning" but that it 
results through the agency of mosquitoes. Brutus, however, 
must needs meet with the conspirators. 



S. Pompeius. But all the charms of love, 

Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lips ! 

Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both! 

Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts; 

Keep his brain fuming; Epicurean cooks 

Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite; 

That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour, 

Even till a Lethe'd dulness. 

— Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. , Sc. I. 



King. Haply, the seas, and countries different, 
With variable objects, shall expel 
This something-settled matter in his heart; 
Whereon his brains still beating, puts him thus 
From fashion of himself. 

— Hamlet, Act III., Sc. i. 

As in Shakspere's day, now we advise a change of scenery and air 
for the invalid. A sea voyage is often sufficient to cure many 
obscure troubles while an absence from domestic and business 
cares is conducive to a return of health. 



ETHICS. 



Mrs. Quickly. Nay, said I, will you cast away your child on a fool 
and a physician? 

— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Sc. 4. 



King. But may not be so credulous of cure, 

When our most learned doctors leave us; and 
The congregated college has concluded 
That laboring art can never ransom nature 
From her inaidable estate, — I say we must not 
So strain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, 
To prostitute our past cure malady 
To empirics ; or to dissever so 

76 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Our great self and our credit, to esteem 

A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. 

—All's Well That Ends Well, Act III., Sc. i. 

The King had evidently no confidence in quacks but was willing 
to trust himself to those of the "congregated college" or the 
educated physician. 



Song. The sceptre, learning, physic, must 
All follow this, and come to dust. 

— Cymbeline, Act IV., Sc. 2. 

The King, the scholar and the physician must all die ; Shakspere 
places the physician in good company, certainly, and rightly 
so. 

Cymbeline. Whom worse than a physician. 

Would this report become? But I consider, 
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death 
Will seize the doctor too. — 

— Cymbeline, Act V., Sc. 5. 



Pericles. Thou speak'st like a physician, Helicanus ; 
Who minister'st a potion unto me 
That thou would'st tremble to receive thyself. 

— Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act I., Sc. 2. 



Kent. Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow 
Upon the foul disease. 

— King Lear, Act I., Sc. 1. 



MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 

Polixenses. Is not your father grown incapable 

Of reasonable affairs? Is he not stupid 
With age and altering rheums? Can he speak? hear? 
Know man from man? dispute his own estate? 
Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing, 
But what he did being childish? 

—Winter's Tale, Act IV., Sc. 3- 
LftFC, yy 



SHAKSPERE IN MEDICINE. 



Warwick. See, how the blood is settled in his face ! 
Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost,* 
Of a?hy semblance, meager, pale, and bloodless, 
Being all descended to the laboring heart; 
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death, 
Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy; 
Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth 
To blush and beautify the cheek again. 
But see, his face is black, and full of blood ; 
His eyeballs further out than when he liv'd, 
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man; 
His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretclrd with struggling; 
His hands abroad display'd, as one that gasp'd 
And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdued. 
Look on the sheets, his hair, you see, is sticking; 
His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged, 
Like the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd 
It cannot be but he was murder'd here ; 
The least of all these signs were probable. 

— Part Second, King Henry Sixth, Act III., Sc. 2. 

Here again is shown the marvellous versatility of Shakspere, for 
no clearer or more exact description is given anywhere and 
with such detail of a case of sudden death, without apparent 
wound, bruise or the suspicion of poison. 

*Corse. 



78 



INDEX OF DISEASES AND SUBJECTS 



Page 

Abscess ..... 26 

Aconite 53 

Acquired Traits - - - - 66 

Alcohol 51 

Amputation 24 

Anatomy 60 

Anodynes .... 48 

Antitoxin 12 

Aphrodisiac - 48-51 

Apoplexy - - - - 10 

Apothecary 58 

Apprehensions - - - 16 

Artery ------ 60 

Beef Eating .... 73 

Belly 62 

Birth 41 

Blood 61 

Blushing - - - - 66 

Boils 6 

Bone Aches - - - - n 

Brain Activity - - • - 68 

Brains 34 

Bubonic Plague .... 5 

Caesarian Section - - - 45 

Catalepsy 10 

Cataract ----- 28 

Chamomile - - - - - 53 

Change of Scenery 76 

Chemistry - 50 

Child-Bearing - - - - 66 

Chlorosis - - ... 9 

Cicatrice 26 

Circulation of Blood - - - 61 

Cold 18 

Colocynth - - - - - 52 

Contagious Diseases - - 6 
Convulsions - - - -11 

Corpse 78 

Cramps 11 

Curare 59 

Cystitis 28 

Death - 4-20 

Death of Unborn - - - 46 

Decay 70 

Deformity at Birth - - - 43 



Page 

Desire for Maternity - - 67 

Diarrhea - - 54 

Dietetics 72 

Difficult Labor - - - 44 

Digestion 62 

Dropsy 1 1 

Dyspepsia ----- 35 

Emotions 15 

Empyema .... 7 

Enema - - - - - 17 

Epidemics .... 6 

Epilepsy 39 

Ethics .... . 76 

Excrement - - - - - 60 

Faulty Circulation - - - 69 

Fever - 4 

Fistula ..... 28 

Fracture ----- 24 

Fruitfulness - - - - - 66 

Functional Disturbances - - 14 

Gangrene - - - - 25 

Goitre 7 

Gonorrhea - - - - 33 

Gout 7 

Growth and Decay - 70 

Hair - 60 

Heart 3 

Heartburn 9 

Hebanon (Henbane) - - 59 

Hemiplegia 40 

Hemlock ----- 50 

Hemorrhage ... - 26 

Heredity - 64 

Hospital 30 

Hydrophobia - - - 35 

Hygiene 72 

Hygiene and Dietetics - - 72 

Hypnosis - - - - - 57 

Hypnotics ... - 48 

Hysteria 12 

Illegitimate Birth - - - 44 

Impotency ----- 31 

Indigestion .... 9 

Infectious Diseases - - - 16 



INDEX OF DISEASES AND SUBJECTS 



Infected Joint 

Inheritance 

Insanity 

Insomnia 

Introduction 

Invalidism 



Page 
25 
64 

33 

ii 
17 



Jaundice - - - - 10 

Jurisprudence - - - - 77 

Lance - 27 

Laryngitis - - - - - 31 

Leg Presentation - - - 45 

Leprosy .... - 16 

Liver 6; 

Love Potions - - - -52 

Lusty Manhood 70 

Malaria ----- 2 

Mandragora 52 

Measles 7 

Medicine 2 

Melancholy - 35 

Menopause 70 

Mental and Nervous Diseases - ^3 

Midwife 41 

Miscarriage - - - - - 42 

Music -...- 39 

Nervous Diseases 33 

Nurse 41 

Nutrition ----- 62 

Obstetrics - - - - 41 

Occupation - - - - - 17 

Opium 47 

Ovariotomy - - - - - 28 

Pain 17 

Paralysis Agitans - - - 40 

Pharmacy - - - - 47 

Phthisis 7 

Physical Cowards 68 

Physical Endurance - - - 68 

Physician - - - - - 77 

Physiology - - - - • 61 

Pia Mater - 65 

Plague 5 



Page 

Plantain 48 

Poisoning - - - - 19 

Premature Birth - - - - 44 

Probe 27 

Pruritis ----- 12 

Puberty 63 

Pulse 71 

Pupils 38 

Purgatives - - - - - 16 

Quack 21 

Quickening ... - 42 

Reversal of Heredity - - - 65 

Rheumatism 7 

Rhubarb 17 

Sack ----- 49-74 

Salve 48 

Sciatica 28 

Scrofula 8 

Seaton or Issue - - - - 26 

Senile Decay - - - - 18 

Senna 17 

Somnambulism - - • - 12 

Spasms - - - - - 11 

Suggestion - - - - 57 

Surgery 22 

Sympathetic Disturbances - - 14 

Syphilis 29 

Teeth 75 

Teeth at Birth 43 

Tent or Probe - - - - 27 

Therapeutics - 47 

Toxicology 47 

Twins 42 

Typhoid 5 

Typhus ----- 5-6 

Ulcer with Infection - - 25 

Urine 18 

Vivisection 49 

Weaning - - - - - 4 1 

Wounds 22 



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